Regular Duct Cleaning Can Protect Your Employees from Allergies
Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers
Employees who suffer from allergies will appreciate employers who take care of the air quality in their buildings, especially if they suffer from allergies, quite apart from the employer's duty of responsibility to their building's occupants under Health and Safety.
Who hasn't sympathised with a colleague struggling to work through the annual hay fever season?
Air conditioning in the building may help them immensely but it also helps people who suffer from dust and other allergies and asthma.
But any ducted air system in a building, whether it's for heating or air conditioning, usually involves air being circulated in what's effectively a closed and sealed system, so it needs to be kept in good condition.
Dust particles, bacteria, moulds, excess moisture and fibres can all collect in air ducts and affect the efficiency of a duct system. If it's not kept clean they will build up over time.
Mould and mildew thrive in dark, dank places like duct systems, where they release microscopic spores that people inhale.
Dust is actually an assortment of minute particles of bug fragments, mould spores, bits of plastic and can be a particular menace in the winter, when windows and doors are kept closed.
It's a perfect environment for dust mites, insects that live in dust and are the cause of the allergy symptoms like runny eyes, blocked noses and itchy skins that make it so hard for people to concentrate.
Maintaining the quality of the air circulating in your building by having a regular schedule of air duct inspection and duct cleaning, therefore, can help your employees feel valued and if they're not struggling with irritated eyes or a runny nose they're more likely to perform better.
If a sufferer finds that their symptoms clear when they're away from the building for a few days then it's likely that the ducting in the building is contributing to their problems.
When you consider that most people spend a large proportion of their waking day in their work environment it makes sense to help them stay alert, awake and able to perform to the best of their ability.
It's not only an issue for offices; places of work where performance is important also include hospitals, clinics, and schools.
Because they are all "customer-facing environments working in all these places can be stressful, so it's obviously important that staff can maintain a calm, helpful and professional persona.
This could have implications in a commercial environment for profit and performance, in other public buildings it may be more about their good name and reputation.
There are, however, other reasons why maintiaining and regularly cleaning duct systems can affect profitability.
A system not performing to maximum efficiencey could be contributing to increased energy costs, so a regular maintenance and cleaning schedule can help you keep overheads under control.
Having records showing regular maintenance and cleaning to keep duct systems working at peak efficiency are also important for demonstrating concern for the environment.
Investment in regular duct maintenance and cleaning therefore makes sound commercial sense.
About the Author
Air quality is one of the factors that can contribute to allergies, particularly in buildings with a closed ventilation system like air conditioning. Offices, schools and hospitals are among the most vulnerable buildings and regular maintenance and duct cleaning of air duct systems makes economic sense. By journalist Ali Withers. http://www.pro-ductclean.com/air-duct-cleaning.asp
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