This is a language that doesn’t come in decibels but in microns and the experts call it PM or particulate matter. They are like aliens invading the planet and are certainly not interested in starting an amiable conversation with mankind… they are here to conquer and they have armies that we know as PM10 or PM2.5 and are spread all over. Some of them are outdoors and hide behind a deceptive cover called smog. Others remain inside and hum around as harmless pet allergens or dust and mites from carpets, books and even furniture. A guide on allergy immunotherapy will help you better understand how it works.
A simpler definition calls them pollutants but this is a dangerously ugly word and has the potential to frighten most of us. The truth is that it is not fright that is going to save us from them but the right action. Therefore, pollutants from pet allergen, pollen, VOC, smoke, dust, smog, external gas, bacteria, and industrial exudes need to be countered by reasonable action, or should I say, Moonbow action, that combines intelligence and technology.
We’ve been reading of ways to reduce environmental pollution and degradation of the ecosystem and this is an awareness that does need to spread to each one of us and must be transformed into proactive action that probably begins with not littering and reducing our carbon foot-print in every possible way. These actions will control the source that is responsible for disseminating pollutants in the environment but it will take its own time. There are steps that also need to be taken to counter the ill effects with immediacy and China has shown the world that their water-guns are doing it with a fast and accurate strike rate.
Similar to what is happening to the out of doors pollution even the indoor environmental hazards need to be tackled by both long-term and short-term methods. The long-term method, of course, include actions like keeping AC ducts regularly cleaned, ensuring that paint and varnish fumes are also kept to a minimum, carpets and upholstery is kept dust-free and so on. But there are more sources of indoor pollution than we can think and enumerate, therefore, high efficiency particulate air filters or HEPA need to combine their strength with activated carbon filters and UV lamps to reenergize the indoor air.
Now HEPA, activated carbon filters, and UV lamps are almost like the new-age super heroes who come together to vanquish the alien threat of indoor pollution! I remember reading somewhere that Moonbow air purifiers (and there are of course many other companies doing this) help these super heroes join hands in their device in an effective manner. I mean, so long as this arrangement works by forcing air through a fine mesh that traps harmful particles such as pollen, pet dander, dust mites, Bacteria & tobacco smoke, the world is going to be a happy place.
By the way, these filters meeting the HEPA standard have many other applications as well, including use in medical facilities, automobiles, and aircrafts besides just homes. The Moonbow technical team specifies that ‘to qualify as HEPA by US government standards, an air filter must remove (from the air that passes through) 99.9% of particles that have a size of 0.3 ?m (microns)’. This sounds rather good, doesn’t it?
I remember a friend asked me if these pollutants that come in micron sizes can do any harm. I had to tell him that our immune system was prone to get terribly disturbed because of them which made it susceptible to allergic attacks of a rather severe nature. The lungs and the heart could also be negatively affected and indoor pollution, like smoking can easily be considered to be one of the precipitating factors for MI or what the doctors call a Myocardial Infarction. The sordid truth is that mere masks are not an effective protection against the entire size spectrum of pollutants.
What is important to understand is that it isn’t just the visibility on the roads that pollution affects… it is the power it has to make us all fall sick that must matter. And this pollution has its own sources and agents inside our homes to make it even deadlier for our health. So yes, we do need effective policing of indoor pollution as well and must make it bow to our health concerns. This radical and disruptive language that pollution converses in needs to stop… and we need to adopt both the long-term actions that I have talked about as well as adopt the device that conquers it with minimal time-lag and has immediate effect to help us fight it.
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Mind, soul, and body needs purified air. Moonbow. Airpurifiers.
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Arvind Passey
15 December 2015
4 comments
Saurabh Chawla says:
Dec 16, 2015
Absolutely! Pollution is a slow killer but now too much of it is getting in our nerves! It seriously needs to be controlled or we will have generation where everyone will be sick!
Arvind Passey says:
Dec 21, 2015
What is equally important is to make everyone aware of the hazards of pollution… an eco-system that totters can make life gasp. We need to write, speak, encourage, enthuse, get people together… and share this post so that more and more read and become eco-warriors. 🙂
Viki says:
Apr 30, 2016
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Arvind Passey says:
Apr 30, 2016
Thank you! 🙂