Some pollutants are eating away at the atmosphere, exposing the earth to harmful ultraviolet radiation in high doses. Air pollutants also are the primary ingredient in things like acid rain, smog, and other pollution related weather phenomena which carry health problems for animals and plants alike.

 

Air pollution can be defined as any harmful material that is present in the earth’s atmosphere. The causes of such pollution, therefore, are many and highly varied. Some sources are natural, such as volcanism or forest fires started by lightning, while others are brought about by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. While the earth does have built-in mechanisms for getting rid of air pollution, it is usually better for all living things to reduce the amount of pollutants released into the air to begin with.

The causes of Sick Building Syndrome are difficult to identify, because the condition is normally caused by a number of existing factors in the building. People may be affected by chemical output of paints, carpets, natural molds and pollutants like cockroach excrement, tobacco smoke, specific types of flickering lighting, low humidity, poor maintenance of the building, and air and heating settings that do not include enough exchange with outdoor air.

Illness resulting from apartment buildings tends to be the result of biological contaminants like molds or fungi, and poor overall maintenance of the building. Some think that SBS is less common in residential buildings since single apartments are likely to show greater variance in decoration. Further, many apartments give you the ability to open a window if the air seems stale, even in apartments of many floors. This may not be true in an office environment, and decorations are more uniform. Everyone on the same floor of a building may have the same carpet, and similar desks, chairs and lighting. This uniformity may be the reason why SBS more often occurs in commercial buildings.

 

Air circulation devices, such as centralized heating and air conditioning, fans, air purifiers, or dehumidifiers can serve as collection areas for dust and mildew if not properly maintained. All these appliances have filters, ducts, or screens that must be cleaned or replaced regularly. Make sure all the ventilating outlets to your house are clean, including window screens.

There are various types of indoor air cleaners, each designed to eliminate a certain kind of pollutant. For particulate matter, there are mechanical and electric indoor air cleaners. Mechanical cleaners, specifically in the form of filters, remove the particles of pollutants by capturing them in the filter. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are an example of this.

Electronic air cleaners use an electrostatic process to trap charged pollutant particles. The particles become charged when air is pulled through a cleaner, such as an electrostatic precipitator, via an ionization process. These charged particles then are released back into the air to attach and clean the polluted particles.