In this article, we’re moving on to the air purifiers and their importance in providing probably the key piece in the puzzle as regards personal health protections for groomer, client, and pet using a salon’s grooming service. There is an important point to be made; as dedicated and as diligent as any salon operator can be regarding visible cleanliness, area sanitation and overall work space conditions, there is an unending threat to health and comfort, both short-term and long-term, faced in a groomer’s environment, due to ever-present airborne contaminants. The answer lies in successfully removing most visible hazards and even the unseen, more dangerous particulates that are unique to the animal grooming vocation, which also create the largest threat to both short and long term health. The right air purifier (AP) can certainly accomplish this as well as ensuring your salon stays open and operating at maximum efficiency.

Both seen and unseen preventable threats are not preventable without a way to filter out pollutants and the unseen particles (PM) that not only keep them in the air for hours, days or sometimes weeks, but also multiply in number day after day, further increasing the dangers within breathable air. Not only those with lower tolerance to seasonal illnesses and lower immune defense are at risk, but even the heartiest of us are under constant threat, just by the particulate matter (PM) remaining in the space and its ability to transport bacterial and viral pathogens in large numbers to infect personnel and allow penetration deep into one’s body.

We can, with the right products and equipment, attack surface threats to our health with varying degrees of success. But without a way to effectively and consistently protect a grooming salon’s patrons and employees from unacceptable health risks, and in fact, without a top-notch, proven air purification system will we be able to contain or successfully attack the major threat to indoor air pollution.

Researching air purifiers and their applications can be both a confusing as well as a daunting task. The sheer number of units on the market is considerable and the marketing so simplistic that one might think that quietness, model style, price, and frequency of filter changes were the only important features to be considered. The large majority promised filtration or destruction of airborne pollutants that are mostly irritants found in the home environments such as pollens, dust, allergens, etc.

Even the few air purifiers that include High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter (HEPA) filtration avoid data and operational criteria sufficient to give one a clear view concerning the most severe health hazards in household use, much less for the most critical health protections needed. In business and commercial locales, especially those compact indoor areas with higher humidity spikes, high levels of unseen particulate matter production, and vigorous continual air movement, these retail units fail at evaluating the important issues necessary for effective air purification. Even the claims of success from technology such as ultraviolet (UV) and ionization systems, when researched, leave us less than sure as to the real results, since most scientific studies call for more definitive data as to effectiveness achieved with these “kill” technologies.

To date, “kill” result claims have not been accepted by the water damage restoration industry for contracted insurance work and should not be substituted for “passive” capture system standards that utilize comparative criteria and rigid test standards for validation. This especially applies to particulate matter (PM) below 2.5 µm (microns), the most dangerous and invasive of contaminants, which has been linked to the transport of bacteria and virus material internally to vital organs and living tissue with both short and long term health implications.

In this series, we will rely on the studies and certifications that have a long history and acceptance in the scientific and business communities. Our concentration will thus center on the “passive” or manual method of filtration for particle capture versus the “active” methods such as ultraviolet (UV) and ionization that rely on an organism kill stratagem. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is relied on to give guidance on equipment, systems, and technologies that impact issues such as the health, safety, and comfort of its citizens. And even they admit when reporting on air pollution, that their studies cover only outdoor pollution, not indoor, and commenting on particulate matter (PM), they admit that although not studied, they know indoor particulate matter pollution is much worse.

Both seen and unseen threats are not preventable without a way to filter out transporters such as pollutants and the unseen particles (such as particulate matter) that not only suspend them in the air for hours, days or sometimes weeks, but keep multiplying in number day after day, further increasing the dangers reaching saturation levels in a salon’s breathable air. Not only individuals with lower tolerance to seasonal illnesses with lowered immune defenses and lower immune defense are at risk, but even the heartiest of us are under constant threat, just by the saturated particulate matter (PM) remaining in the airspace with particulate matter’s ability to transport bacterial and viral pathogens in large numbers, thus infecting personnel and allowing penetration deep into one’s body via nasal/breathing, even with facemask protection.

We will continue our discussion in the next section. Stay tuned!

Till Next Time,
-The Professor