Separating fact from fiction about clean air

Over the next 30 years, it is expected poor air quality will be the leading cause of premature deaths worldwide. A third of deaths from strokes, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory disease, and a quarter of coronary heart disease deaths are attributable to air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the manufacturing sector, despite numerous regulations governing outdoor air pollution worldwide, some countries still do not have formal guidelines in place to protect employees against exposure to oil mist and other harmful airborne contaminants.

Supporters of clean air across the globe believe that the quality of indoor air requires the same degree of consideration, and subsequent regulation, as that of outdoor air.

In fact, the WHO, which provides the basis for standards in environmental quality and air quality guidelines worldwide, states that more than two million premature deaths every year can be attributed to outdoor and indoor air pollution, despite clean air being considered as one of the most basic requirements of human health and well-being.

While the dangers of outdoor pollution to our health are well-known and well-documented (and subsequently more regulated), the impact of indoor pollutants is far less publicized. However, exposure to contaminants indoors can be equally, if not more, hazardous to health.

The California Air Resources Board recently compiled a comprehensive report that estimated that indoor levels of pollution are between 25 and 62 per cent greater than those measured outside. Indoor air pollution is linked to a variety of health conditions, both long- and short-term. These include:

• Skin irritation.
• Headaches.
• Sore throat.
• Eye irritation.
• Memory lapses.
• Dizziness.

In more severe cases, and where the individual has been exposed to the unclean air for a period of time, health issues such as asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, lung disease, and cancer can result.

Rules and laws naturally differ depending on your country of residence, but many Canadian jurisdictions do not even have specific legislation that deals with indoor air quality issues.

According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), in the absence of specific air quality legislation, the “general duty clause” is used, which states that an employer must provide a safe and healthy workplace.

Despite the global regulatory system being inconsistent when clean air is concerned, organizations can be punished for failing to protect their employees’ health and well-being. CCOHS will fine companies that fail to protect the health of their employees.

With a sharper focus on air pollution and the cleanliness of workplace air, it’s only a matter of time before more and more employees, and their employers, acknowledge not only the importance of providing staff with a healthy environment in which to work, but the very costly repercussions of failing to do so.

With the development of new technology and the subsequent evolution of manufacturing and engineering practices and processes, it is a common assumption that workplaces are now much cleaner and less polluted than they have ever been. In fact, this is far from the truth.

The use of higher coolant pressures at faster speeds produces a significant amount of submicron particles that are not only visible in the air but can be smelled and even tasted. This resultant oil mist can be ingested, inhaled, and absorbed by workers, causing numerous short-term and longer-term health conditions if not effectively removed from the air.

The air pollutants caused by common manufacturing processes such as grinding, casting, and milling include oil mist, dust, and fumes. The particles produced are called particulate matter (PM) and, while some are large enough to be seen by the naked eye and are more likely to be ingested via the nose and mouth, many others are so tiny that they’re completely invisible.

The smallest particles are called PM2.5. Around 19 million of these particles -- in the form of oil smoke particles – can fit into a 1-litre bottle. The same size bottle can hold 153,000 oil mist particles of that size.

The ultra-fine nature of these particles makes them extremely harmful to an individual because of their highly permeable nature, which enables them to enter the tissue lining, causing serious health issues such as respiratory illness and cancers.

Poor-quality air within a workplace can wreak havoc on an individual’s short- and long-term health, and this can have devastating consequences for any business.

A 2017 report by VitalityHealth delivered in partnership with the University of Cambridge, RAND Europe, and Mercer, states that employers in Britain are losing on average 27.5 days of productive time per employee per year because of absenteeism and underperformance as a result of ill health.

Not only can a clean working environment benefit organizations by ensuring healthier, more engaged, and more productive employees, but the use of filter systems within the workplace can also contribute to significant financial savings through reduced energy and coolant purchase costs.

In terms of efficiencies, many modern filters can operate 1,000 to 2,000 hours without the need for maintenance, with some systems proven to operate for over 30 years.

With most filtration systems being relatively inexpensive to purchase when compared with the overall costs of investing in new machine tools, and taking into account the very real impact that clean air can have on employees’ health and their subsequent productivity, using an effective extraction system is a small price to pay for the wide-ranging benefits it will bring.