Insidious draft: Is it possible to get sick because of the air conditioner
The season of office wars for the remote from the air conditioner between those who are about to "blow through" and those who die from the heat, is already open. We understand whether air conditioners "drive viruses around", whether freons are harmful to the environment and why an ionizer is needed.
Air conditioning and ventilation
Talking about air conditioners in general is a long and complicated business, because air conditioning systems are used not only in offices and apartments. Such systems are equipped with industrial premises, huge skyscrapers, and modest houses in the hot south. Devices can have different principles of work and different additional functions like air purification, but somehow they do one thing - they cool the air in the room.
To spend less energy, as a rule, the air conditioner uses the air that is already in the room, and does not take a new one from the street. The system repeatedly flushes the air through itself, cooling it, and so that no new hot air comes in from the street, we close the doors and windows. True, the air inside the room becomes dirtier - and it is not the air conditioning that pollutes it, but the people who breathe it. Ideally, when choosing an air conditioner, it is worthwhile to dwell on the fact that it contains the air cleaning function. In addition, the filters must be changed regularly - otherwise the device itself will become a source of infection.
Who lives in air conditioners
In any device where cooling occurs, condensate forms: the water vapor present in the hot air settles on the cooling elements and takes on a liquid form. In theory, they cope with excess moisture by taking the pipes out of the building, so water is constantly dripping from the air conditioners on city streets.
Humidity, which somehow is inside the air conditioner, is a breeding ground for any microorganism. Warm air, sea of moisture, closed space - bacteria, fungi and protozoa just can not reproduce in such conditions. They themselves or their metabolic products come out of the air conditioner along with the cooled air - this is called bioaerosol. How dangerous air conditioning in a particular office, depends on what microorganisms settled inside the system.
Back in the sixties, when we had only fans, scientists at the National Laboratory of the University of Lawrence Berkeley in the United States were carefully observing how air conditioners affect health. Contaminated air conditioning filters led to an increase in the incidence of asthma and other allergic diseases. One study found that dust mites accumulate in filters for air conditioners - one of the main causes of allergies and asthma. Mold is also a serious danger: according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mold from central air conditioners can affect healthy people, causing symptoms of shortness of breath, cough and upper respiratory tract, and in people with chronic diseases cause their aggravation.
Therefore, in buildings where there is air conditioning, air quality is directly dependent on the quality of these systems. There is even a "sick building syndrome" - a complex of symptoms arising from the fact that the building was incorrectly designed or the sanitary norms are not observed. This syndrome may include nasal congestion, breathing problems, headaches, fatigue, and allergic skin rashes. Although the problems in the building may be different, air conditioners also contribute if not what is needed is reproduced in them. In the summer of 1976, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by legionellosis, a deadly bacterial infection, erupted in Pennsylvania. After meeting 4,000 people at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, more than 180 fell ill, and 29 of them died. Dangerous bacteria found in the cooling system of the hotel.
Do I need a humidifier and ionizer
Another dark side of air conditioning: once the moisture is removed from the room, the air becomes drier. This can contribute, for example, to the spread of the influenza virus - it is most active in dry air. According to sanitary norms and rules, the relative humidity of the air in the room should be 40-60%. In addition, too dry indoor air is one of the common causes of nosebleeds, especially in people who are predisposed to them.
But the ionization that some manufacturers offer along with cooling is the marketing pseudoscientific trick to which you want to be so led. Back in 1899, ions (charged molecules) were discovered, and in search of how to apply them, humanity thought of ionizers and Chizhevsky chandeliers. Unfortunately, to confirm the effectiveness and the need for ionization for health does not work - and it is easy to understand if you put the words "air ionizer", "air ioniser" or "air ionizer" into the search bar. The issue pages are filled with ads, but in the PubMed research database, this combination is presented in just six papers, and they are not credible. Some studies say that filters and ionization help kill ticks and not infect guinea pigs with the flu, but the level of these works, and their number only means that science does not really know anything about ionization.
Do air conditioners spoil the environment?
In the cult "Dogme", the character of Azrail knocked on the house, asking whether the owners use the freon air-conditioning system - after all, freon destroys the ozone layer, which means you cannot use it. The “Dogma” plot does not touch this question further, but still an interesting fact: several types of cooling substances that differ in chemical composition are called freons at once. Some types of freon adversely affect the environment, and their use is universally reduced; now they are being replaced by other freons, more modern and safer. In general, the researchers have not yet figured out what harms the atmosphere of the planet more - heating appliances or air conditioners.
Is it possible to catch a cold because of the air conditioner
The human body can adapt to the environment, otherwise we would not have been able to win the evolutionary battle for existence. When we get used to a certain temperature, we feel differently differently - therefore in the spring plus fifteen seem warm, and in the winter they make me feel cold. The same with air conditioners: if a heated person enters a cold room, the body will feel cold. It may seem that the temperature drop in this sharp, but in fact in the middle lane, it is unlikely to exceed ten degrees (if on the street for thirty, and in the room a little more than twenty). For a normally functioning body, this is not a big deal, the main thing is not to catch the infection from uncleaned filters. In general, viral infections (which are what we call the "common cold") are transmitted to a person from a person, not from an air conditioner.
What to do so that the air conditioner does not become dangerous
There is nothing new here, one way out - you need to change the filters in time and do not save on the maintenance of air cooling systems. Ideally, every year, before you start using the air conditioner, you need to carry out its maintenance, that is, change the filters and clean the air ducts. In offices, this is usually done by individual specialists, but at home it makes sense to keep the instructions for the air conditioner and use its instructions. In the car, you need to change the air conditioner filters when you drove 20-30 thousand kilometers.
Air conditioning should be cleaned not only after a long and wet winter, but also after repair: particles of paint and building dust can remain on the filters and air ducts, which will not add health to the respiratory organs. And the main thing is to open the windows more often so that the air in the room is updated.
Photo: geargodz - stock.adobe.com (1, 2)
