Enhancing contaminant control to mitigate aeroallergies.

BACKGROUND

Modern construction techniques such as sealing buildings and reducing air exchange rates to conserve energy often increase indoor air contaminant concentrations, a problem for people with asthma and aeroallergies. Further, a large proportion of the contaminants that are found in indoor air do not reach the filters because the motion of particulates less than about 3 microns in size, 99% of all particulates, is determined more by the normal electrical forces in a room than by the air currents.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether the natural process of aerosol coagulation, which increases particle size, can be speeded-up, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of air currents in returning contaminants to the filters and improving contamination control.

METHOD

A set of four experiments using various methods involving particulate and gaseous contaminants are presented.

RESULTS

Statistically significant differences in room contaminant load were found in the various experiments as a function of the treatment used.

CONCLUSIONS

The effectiveness of filters can be significantly enhanced and the concentration of contaminants in indoor air can be significantly reduced in a straight-forward direct way. The physics underlying the phenomena is described. The implications for allergy and asthma patients are significant, for we now have a new means to substantially improve indoor air quality.