Your lungs can hold about three large soda bottles of air at any given time – about 6 liters.
At an estimated 12 breaths per 60 seconds, you breathe approximately 1,140 times per day.
It might sound simple enough: you breathe in, breathe out, repeat as needed. Then you go on with your day.
But your lungs have a much bigger job description! They have to take in that air, process it, send oxygen out to all the areas in your body where it is needed, receive waste products (chiefly carbon dioxide), exhale those out and then start the whole process all over again.
All that to say: how pure or impure your air supply is really matters. The cleaner and more oxygenated your air supply is, the easier it is for your lungs to do their job and the stronger and healthier you will be.
But with today’s indoor air getting more toxic, finding clean, pure, oxygenated air to breathe is a lot harder than it sounds. This is where an ultraviolet air purifier can really lend your lungs a helping hand!
The State of Our Indoor Air Quality
The EPA’s recent report on the environment delivered some shocking news – on average, indoor air is two to five times more toxic than the air just outside.
This is not good news for your lungs or health. It is even worse news once you factor in that the average Canadian reports spending as little as five minutes per day outdoors.
This means that, of the 1,440 minutes you spend breathing in and out in the typical day, 1,435 of those minutes are spent breathing indoor air. This makes cleaning up your indoor air supply an urgent health matter!
For anyone who suffers from allergies, asthma, respiratory infections or lung disease, the situation becomes even more critical.
Why Is Indoor Air MORE Toxic?
After so many years spent worrying about the quality of our outdoor air, it can be shocking to learn that the air outside is actually safer to breathe in many cases.
But why is this the case? What has happened to shift air toxicity to this degree?
The answer to this question is simple and well-documented.
Along with growing concerns about dwindling natural resources, which has prompted efforts to conserve the fossil fuels required to provide power for today’s homes and workplaces, the construction industry has responded with new, advanced airtight construction techniques.
These techniques seal up every natural crack or crevice that might let indoor air slip out or outdoor air slip in. Today’s new-built homes and workplaces offer almost no natural ventilation to recycle indoor air.
As well, humans are using more toxic chemicals indoors than ever before. So what you have is a whole lot of trapped airborne chemicals that can’t get out. As a result, the indoor air gets stale, heavy with toxins and depleted of oxygen.
Ventilation Is Not the Only Answer
At this point, you might think, “Aha! I know how to fix this! Ventilation is the answer!”
And you are right, to a point. Better ventilation is needed to do artificially what used to take place naturally inside homes and offices. Ventilation can also help to some degree to move airborne toxins back outdoors and draw in new, fresh, oxygen-rich air.
Unfortunately, it can’t do the whole job by itself. Ventilation’s primary job is to move stale air out and fresh air in, just as your lungs exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen.
A good heat recovery ventilation system can even boost your HVAC system’s energy efficiency, lower your monthly utility bills and help balance the humidity in your indoor air.
But ventilation can’t do anything about toxins that have already found their way into your home and have become lodged in your air ducts, where they are sent back out through the exhaust vents.
Meet Ventilation’s Trusty Sidekick: Ultraviolet Purification
Ultraviolet light has gotten a pretty bad rap over the decades as the cause for sunburns and skin cancer.
But ultraviolet, or UV, light can do many beneficial things, too, including purify the air we breathe.
At its simplest, UV light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that has the power to change the composition of living organisms, including bacteria, viruses and mould. The process UV light uses to do this is called “ionization.” When UV light hits living matter, ionization separates electrons from atoms, changing the chemical structure of the matter.
When UV light ionizes airborne toxins, it neutralizes their potential to harm you.
How Ultraviolet Purification Cleans Your Indoor Air
Our sun produces three UV light bands: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. Of these three, UV-C is the most powerful, but the protective layer of ozone surrounding our planet shields us from this light band.
An ultraviolet air purifier is basically very focused UV-C light that continuously scans the air in your home or workplace for airborne toxins. When it finds living matter such as gaseous compounds, viruses, bacteria, mould or mildew, it changes their chemical composition and neutralizes their toxicity.
Put simply, UV air purification strips toxins right out of your indoor air supply, leaving behind safe, pure, breathable air.
Ventilation + UV Purification = Safe, Clean, Breathable Indoor Air!
Are you ready to feel better, sleep better and wake up feeling rested, refreshed and ready to do your best work and really enjoy your life?
Discover the difference the potent team of ventilation plus ultraviolet air purification can make in your family’s health.
Get in Touch
Get a jump-start on indoor air quality by saving 10 percent on any indoor air duct cleaning service!
Contact us online or give us a call at 905-544-2470.
