Ventilation
Ventilation is one of the most important engineering controls available to the industrial hygienist for improving or maintaining the quality of the air in the occupational work environment. Broadly defined, ventilation is a method of controlling the environment with air flow.
Ventilation may be deficient in confined spaces, facilities failing to provide adequate maintenance of ventilation equipment, facilities operated to maximize energy conservation, windowless areas, and areas with high occupant densities. The following references aid in recognizing and evaluating hazards associated with ventilation in the workplace.
Ventilation is the exchange of indoor air for outdoor air. Two types of home ventilation methods include natural and mechanical ventilation. In natural ventilation, outside air enters the house through opened doors and windows. In mechanical ventilation, there are electronic devices such as fans that remove air from a single room, to whole-house systems that remove polluted indoor air and then distribute filtered and conditioned outdoor air throughout the house.
Why Do I Need Mechanical Ventilation?
According to the EPA, sources of indoor pollution that release gases or contaminants into the air are the primary cause of indoor air quality problems in homes. Not providing enough ventilation can aggravate and increase indoor pollutant levels by not bringing in enough fresh, outdoor air to dilute indoor source emissions and also by not carrying enough of potentially unhealthy indoor air pollutants out of the home.
Ventilating a home by opening doors and windows may not always be feasible due to security reasons or outdoor noise levels, rain, snow or weather conditions being too hot or cold to open a window. Mechanical ventilation allows a quiet, energy efficient way to exchange stale and sometimes toxic indoor air for fresh, outside air throughout your entire home. An Aprilaire Ventilation System allows you to ventilate your whole-home’s stale, polluted indoor air with fresh air in an energy-efficient way 365 days a year.
“Your home needs ventilation—the exchange of indoor air with outdoor air—to reduce indoor pollutants, moisture, and odors. Contaminants such as formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and radon can accumulate in poorly ventilated homes, causing health problems.”
