Indoor Air Quality and Human Health with changing climate

Indoor Plants can effectively maintain indoor air quality, when coupled with energy efficient practice in Green Buildings. Research suggests indoor environments could adversely affect cognitive functioning and health. Levels of air pollution in closed spaces are rising faster than air quality outside; leading to poor cognitive abilities and health conditions.

Indoor Plants can effectively maintain Indoor air quality, when coupled with use of energy efficiently and common practice in Green Buildings. This  simple and innovative solution will help us in breathing easy and staying smart and one can also improve personal productivity, cognitive ability and wellness besides saving money and energy costs.

Studies suggest that improved air quality could greatly increase the cognitive function performance of workers. Even the modest improvements to indoor environmental quality may have a profound impact on the decision-making performance of workers. In addition, when researchers looked at the effect of CO2, Exposure to CO2 and VOCs at levels found in conventional office buildings was associated with lower cognitive scores than those associated with levels of these compounds found in a Green building.

Rightly selected indoors plants not only remove toxic pollutants and carbon dioxide but also provide oxygen.

In urban settings, most of our time (around 90%) is spent indoors and 90 percent of the cost of a building are the occupants. Analysis of indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools have revealed higher levels of pollutants than in outdoor environments. Usually built environment and indoor air quality has lot to contribute in Health and Sustainability but its generally taken as an afterthought.  And  simply staying indoors will not help, because Indoor air is up to 10 times more polluted, than the ambient.

Air pollution is now considered to be the world’s largest environmental health threat, accounting for 7 million deaths around the world every year. And staying indoors will not help, because Indoor air is up to 10 times more polluted, than the ambient. A study, by the Center for the Built Environment UC Berkeley, finds that elevated indoor CO2 levels, are indicative of insufficient ventilation and correlate with elevated concentrations of indoor origin pollutants. Adverse health and well-being outcomes associated with elevated indoor CO2 levels are based on CO2 as a proxy, although emerging evidence suggests CO2 itself impact human cognition.

Case Study

Ambient air in Delhi is extremely polluted; Paharpur Business Centre grows its own fresh air with the help of over 1200 air purifying plants. These plants detoxify indoor air and enrich it with oxygen.Below is the data comparison : 

Indoor plants have helped in lowering the instances of eye irritation by 52%, respiratory symptoms-34%, headaches-12%, lung impairment-24%, asthma-9% and15–20% enhancement in productivity level, results in good health and fewer sick days in the building. There is 42% probability of one’s Saturated Blood Oxygen level going up by 1%.

Urban communities spend 90% of their time indoor.

It can be deployed through Breathe Easy, Indoor Air Quality division of PBC and business model. It helps other companies implement solutions to improve Indoor Air Quality while reducing energy footprints. It targets hospitals, schools, embassies including homes to replicate this system.

Regularly checking the indoor air quality parameters. - reduction in indoor pollutants at great extent

For eg: In office, number of sick leaves and employees performance - 15 – 20% enhancement in productivity level too, as a result of good health

As the ambient air in Delhi is extremely polluted, Paharpur Business Centre (case study for the solution) grows its own fresh air with the help of over 1200 air purifying plants. These plants not only detoxify indoor air but also enrich it with oxygen. These indoor plants are grown in special patented planters, help in reducing bacteria and fungus levels, indoors.

PBC has fresh air treatment plant/air washer in the green house at rooftop which is integrated with our IAQ system. IAQ at PBC conforms ASHRAE and WHO standards.

IAQ system adds value to the human experience in the building.

The solution has direct positive impact on Human Health. There’s a huge scope of increasing the cognitive ability and overall health by improving indoor air quality inside the offices, schools, houses and other public buildings. 

Indoor environment of these places could have significant impacts on productivity, learning, and safety. Researchers at the school’s Healthy Building Program suggest air quality may have a big impact on your everyday productivity. They studied the impact of ventilation, lowering CO2 concentration, removing toxic chemicals and improving indoor air quality and suggested that building managers, architects, and designers need to begin, taking environmental quality seriously.

Breathe Easy, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) division of PBC was established in 2013.  It is a business model which not only creates awareness but also makes people believe that breathing clean air is possible.

Breathe Easy helps other companies implement solutions to improve Indoor Air Quality while reducing their energy footprints. It targets hospitals, schools, embassies including homes to replicate this system. Breathe Easy has implemented solutions in German and US Embassy schools in India.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/12/141230-can-plants-really-clean-indias-air/

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/asia/delhi-wakes-up-to-an-air-pollution-problem-it-cannot-ignore.html