Indoor air: air quality and what it contains

Indoor air quality is determined by several key elements: the availability of fresh air, cleanliness, temperature and humidity levels. Oxygenated air promotes better well-being, and cleanliness is achieved by eliminating dust and other impurities.
Temperature and humidity affect the comfort and health of the room. These aspects, regulated by GOST 30494-2011, affect the assessment of the microclimate in residential and public buildings.

Air cleanliness is regulated by the SanPiN 1.2.3685-21 standard "Hygienic standards and requirements for ensuring the safety and (or) harmlessness of environmental factors for humans", which specifies the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances in the air.
To assess the freshness of the air, the standards of the code of rules SP 60.13330.2016 "Heating, ventilation and air conditioning" are used.
Below is a table with summarized information on various aspects of air quality in residential premises, according to established standards and regulations.

All over the world, we breathe air, which is a mixture of gases, and this mixture varies from place to place.
Despite the diversity, the main gases in the air are nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (about 21%), the remaining gases occupy less than 1%.
It is interesting:
This substance was first discovered in the 17th century by the Flemish chemist Johan Baptist van Helmont. He noticed that when burning charcoal, its mass decreases because the mass of the remaining ash is less than the original mass of wood. Helmont concluded that the missing part had turned into an invisible gas, which he called "forest spirit".
The first detailed study of the properties of this gas was conducted in 1754 by the Scottish physician Joseph Black.

Due to the active mixing of air in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the composition of gases remains almost unchanged up to an altitude of about 12,000 meters, although the concentration of each gas can vary by 1-3%.
In the layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth, in addition to the main gases, there are other components:

• water vapor or ice crystals
• the smallest solid particles (soot, dust, suspended particles of automobile exhaust and tobacco smoke)
• various microorganisms
• pollen of plants
• Toxic gases

And already this air enters your apartment, where its composition and quality may change under the influence of various factors.

The air inside the apartment is similar to street air if it is not cleaned. Thus, internal pollutants are added to the usual street pollutants. Pollution is divided into three groups: substances from the street, including dust, microorganisms and volatile compounds, and other products of urban life.

Anthropotoxins are substances that are formed during human life: carbon dioxide, acetone, ammonia, amines, phenols and others.
Various substances are released in human daily life: This can be smoke from gas and cooking products, as well as chemicals from washing and cleaning. Building materials, finishes and furniture can emit formaldehyde, benzene, toluene — dangerous compounds.

The researchers found that the levels of some harmful chemicals indoors can be 10 times higher than in the air outside. Among these substances are benzene, acetone and toluene.
WHO points to the use of polluting fuels and devices as one of the reasons for the increased levels of harmful particles in rooms that can enter the bloodstream. The WHO website says that in poorly ventilated rooms, the level of fine particles can exceed the norm by hundreds of times.

About biological pollutants: in summer, about 750 microbes live in 1 cubic meter of street air, in winter - about 150. Indoors, their number can reach 1,500 in summer, and even 4,500 in winter. This highlights how polluted the air inside can be compared to the outside.
In large cities and industrial areas, due to human activity and certain weather conditions, smog can form, consisting of humid air and pollution, which also penetrates into the premises. The air quality in the house depends on the ambient air and local pollutants. It is important to remember that street air always finds its way inside buildings.

Indoor air pollution can lead to allergies, asthma, headaches, nausea, fatigue and other health problems. Some of these pollutants can cause cancer. People in such conditions are more likely to suffer from respiratory and heart diseases.

The World Health Organization points to air pollution as one of the main causes of early deaths. According to their data, 7 million people die every year due to air pollution - their deaths, as well as countless more diseases, could have been prevented.

The main specific pollutants of indoor air include carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide (CO₂). Normally, it is always present in the atmospheric air, however, since it belongs to anthropotoxins and is continuously released during human respiration, it becomes dangerous if its concentration is exceeded.

Measuring carbon dioxide levels helps to assess one of the key aspects of air quality — its freshness. The GOST 30494-2011 standard indicates that the indoor CO₂ norm is no more than 800 ppm. With an increase in this indicator, negative health consequences are possible, including deterioration of well-being, decreased concentration and general weakness, which is associated with changes in redox processes in the body.

At very high concentrations reaching 7,000 ppm, confusion, visual and hearing impairments are observed. The threshold of 30,000 ppm causes poisoning of the body up to loss of consciousness. In extreme cases, if the carbon dioxide content in the inhaled air is more than 8%, a fatal outcome occurs.

Polluted air is dangerous to human health: it contributes to the development of diseases, complicates the course of chronic diseases, and shortens life expectancy. In the article "Air pollution: the impact on human health" we consider in detail all the negative manifestations of this problem.

There are various ways that help improve indoor air quality, primarily air exchange and air purification.

Normal air exchange or ventilation purposefully improves air quality by affecting its freshness, purity, humidity and temperature. In cases where there is no forced ventilation system, the task is solved through natural ventilation — opening windows and air penetration through cracks and cracks in the structure.

Ventilation helps to replace air with excess carbon dioxide with fresh air, removing used air, excess heat and humidity.

With the help of ventilation, you can get rid of carbon dioxide, but at the same time street polluted air enters the apartment. And, if you do not use a fine window filter, ventilation will not give you a tangible effect in terms of overall benefit to your body.

In addition, the effect of removing excess CO₂ will be temporary: with the windows closed and people in the room, the indicator will start to grow again.

The key to clean air in the house is not only in ventilation, but also in its purification from pollutants. Air purifiers with different types of filters are ideal for this.

For example, HEPA filters that catch small particles. In almost 100% of cases, such fine filters are part of complex, often expensive and difficult-to-configure technical devices.

All of them require electricity, wall deformation, installation crews and a lot of overhead costs.

Therefore, it is important for us to reveal to you the whole essence of the NANOFIBER NF 2.0 fine filter window. So far this is the only solution in the world that is close in parameters to HEPA filters, but it does not require electricity, qualifications for installation and configuration, or damage to walls and room design.