In the last few decades, the issue of indoor air quality at work has become a growing concern for employers everywhere. With aging infrastructure, growing companies, and the increased amount of chemicals and particles in furniture and everyday objects, keeping indoor air quality high in work facilities can be a challenge.
According to studies, poor indoor air quality can lead to a number of symptoms in employees, including:
- Dryness and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Hypersensitivity and allergies
- Sinus congestion
- Coughing and sneezing
- Dizziness
- Nausea
These symptoms often clear up as soon as an employee has left the building, gone for the weekend, or been away for vacation. It’s hard to differentiate these symptoms from a cold or flu, so employees who are more acutely suffering from these symptoms will often take time off work to get better. However, if indoor air quality was higher, they wouldn’t feel these symptoms at all and wouldn’t have to take any sick days.
The time off your employees take affects your bottom line. When sick days increase simply due to poor indoor air quality, that’s something that you as an employer can, and should, remedy! Healthy employees are happy employees.
How to Improve Your Facility’s Indoor Air Quality
Vacuum Bags and Filters
Vacuum bags and filters can have a BIG impact on indoor air quality. The filters regularly used in office cleaning equipment can affect your employees’ health and well-being. Replacing your vacuum filters and bags according to the manufacturer’s recommendations will ensure that the machine is removing dust, dirt, allergens, and other harmful particles from surfaces and not expelling them back into the air. The cleaner surfaces are kept, the higher your indoor air quality will be, the happier and healthier your employees will be.
Using a vacuum or other cleaning equipment that works with a HEPA filter is the next step in ensuring high air quality for your employees.
HVAC Maintenance and Air Filters
Keeping indoor surfaces clean can be hard, and it is even harder to do so when the air being pulled in from outside and circulated around the building is not as clean as it could be.
Having your HVAC system regularly inspected for faults or inefficiencies will ensure that there isn’t a build up of dust or debris that can join the recirculated air in your facility. Replacing your air filters in these systems as per the manufacturer’s recommendations will also help your HVAC system function better overall and reduces the chance that you will need heavy maintenance. If your HVAC system and air filters aren’t clean, then the air inside your facility won’t be either.
HEPA Filters
HEPA filters offer 99.97% micro-filtration down to 0.3 microns, capturing allergens, bacteria, and other particles that can cause illnesses and discomfort for employees. When you use HEPA filters as your filtration solution in your cleaning equipment and air systems, these harmful particles that cause illness are less likely to be on surfaces and in the air at your facility, leading to less contagion and allergies. Employers can see a reduction in sick days, improved employee productivity, and overall, more pleasant and breathable air.
Janitized Can Help Improve Indoor Air Quality
Janitized provides replacement vacuum bags, filters, and HEPA filters for a variety of the vacuum industry’s most prominent brands, including Karcher*, Nilfisk*, Windsor *, and ProTeam* as well as HEPA filters for the restoration market including Dri-Eaz* and Phoenix*. Our HEPA filters provide 99.97% efficiency @ 0.3 μm.
We can help you find the right replacement vacuum filter for your equipment to improve your indoor air quality and in turn, potentially reduce employee sick days. When your indoor air quality is higher, your employees can breathe easier, stay healthier, and be more productive for their teams. It’s a simple step you can take to ensure your employees are happy.
Contact Janitized today to learn more about our aftermarket bags and filters for your facility’s cleaning equipment.
* Trademark or registered trademark of Original Equipment Manufacturer, which may not endorse the use of aftermarket filters in its products.
