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 pets using a salon’s grooming service, there is an important point to make. As hardworking and as diligent as any salon operation 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 an groomer’s environment, due to ever-present airborne contaminants.
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 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.
These smallest, unseen pollutants and particles, and their bacteria and virus transporting capabilities, offer the greatest threat, and the solution points directly at removal of particulate matter (PM), the major transporter from the grooming salon that is such a generous producer of debris and particle contaminants, which at their worst can lead to chronic, upper respiratory issues, contribute to heart conditions and even migrate to the brain and contribute to cognitive issues.
We will go into significant detail in a later article on particulate matter and the damaging role it plays on groomers’, pets’, and clients’ health issues. For now, understanding how an air purifier acquisition is a salon’s 1st step in resolving a grooming salon’s air quality and health issues is the important next subject for examination.
First, we must break down what an air purifier (AP) is and isn’t, as well as the differences in an air scrubber unit. Some have questioned using air “purifier” as only units equipped with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter) are capable of coming close to purifying indoor air to the extent that would validate the word itself. The very large number of different air purifier models and types as currently rated by The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) through its consensus approval process generally concentrate on filtration of pollutants and particles that are successfully removed at the highest rate from larger-in-diameter particles, above 2.5 µm (microns), and do not adequately cover the small PM pollutants capable of and responsible for lung, heart and brain penetration.
These 2.5 µm and smaller diameter particulates are the most-concerning-sized particles for both short-term and long-term health in the pet grooming salon environment. These standards expressed in the association’s Minimum Measurement Rating Value (MERV) rating system for filter performance for expressing capture of particulate matter of a specific size is somewhat dated and needs a more current review as regards PM and its role in viral and bacterial transmittal.
This rating system is for filters and does not also cover system (air purifier unit) efficiency. Even though the efficiency rating of all HEPA filters is by definition rated at 99.97% capturing particles of 0.3 (microns) and larger, air leakage (air that escapes filtration) from purifier units is not presently considered as a rating standard. This may be the reason why a 3-6 times per hour turnover of air in a room by air purifiers is sometimes used as an optimum goal in deciding best system performance in the filtration process. In hospitals and very crowded classrooms, a much higher turnover that doubles the hourly rate is recommended.
The MERV system uses room size in square feet (length x width) with an estimation that room height is 8 feet, where restoration applies the more realistic standard of cubic feet (length x width x height) which is the total volume of room air to be filtered expressed in cubic feet per minute (CFM) air filtration. This allows the consumer to better gauge effectiveness and efficiency of use with a tested and certified airflow output of CFM that appears on restoration equipment and advertising certification that’s required by the insurance industry for claim payments on restoration jobsites.
The home air purifier rating system also does not address sufficiently the motor filtered parameters required to draw large amounts of filtered air through these units to meet the 3-6 times per hour optimum target for room air filtration suggested by industry experts. This is especially important when a HEPA filter is included in an air purifier (AP) unit, since the denseness and structure of this filter requires newer, more advanced and more costly high torque motors capable of drawing significant filtered air through the system to meet the optimum turnover rate as defined by CFM x 60 minutes. Even heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) professionals do not recommend using a HEPA filter in a MERV rated system above 14 without using an HVAC professional to check for adequate motor capabilities to handle the job without motor damage and ensuring unfiltered outdoor air does not cause excessive system leakage causing too many pollutants to enter a home or business.
In our next article we’ll discuss the HEPA filter in detail and what makes it so unique and important for beating today’s animal care facility health challenges.
Till Next Time,
-The Professor