Vent-Axia Offers Eight Easy Steps to Help Protect Children from Indoor Air Pollution on Clean Air Day

14-06-2021

Leading British ventilation manufacturer Vent-Axia is offering eight easy steps to help protect children from indoor air pollution on Clean Air Day on Thursday, 17th June 2021. Clean Air Day is led by environmental charity Global Action Plan and aims to improve public understanding of air pollution, build awareness of how air pollution affects our health and explain the easy actions we can all take to tackle air pollution, helping protect the environment and our health.

This year’s event is focussing on protecting children's health from air pollution, especially following the hard times many experienced during the pandemic. Therefore Vent-Axia is providing some easy-to-follow steps as part of its ongoing commitment to sharing its knowledge of how ventilation and air purification can help protect public health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children severely, affecting their freedom, education and mental wellbeing. As society opens up and children return to their lives, it’s vital that they can learn and play in healthy environments. This Clean Air Day, good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is more important than ever since COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of ventilation and the air we breathe, while children have spent more time indoors due to lockdowns.

Vent-Axia is therefore offering eight easy steps to ‘reduce, dilute and purify’ to help tackle indoor air pollution and improve IAQ in the home:

1. Avoid spraying aerosols
2. Use unscented candles
3. Vacuum regularly
4. Dry wet clothes outside or in a dryer
5. Use a cooker hood
6. Don’t forget to ventilate
7. Use an air purifier
8. Clean fan filters

“We are pleased to once again support Clean Air Day since it continues to raise awareness of the importance of clean air. Long-term exposure to air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK so our simple steps are designed to help improve air quality in the home and benefit the long-term health of children and their families”, explains Lena Hebestreit, Marketing Manager at Vent-Axia. “To improve indoor air quality there are three main actions to take: 1.Reduce the number of pollutants introduced into the air; 2.Dilute the pollutants in the air by ensuring there is adequate ventilation introducing fresh clean air; 3.Purify by adding an air purifier to remove the remaining pollutants from the air.”

With this year’s Clean Air Day focusing on children, the air they breathe indoors is more important than ever. The vital importance of clean air for children’s health was highlighted in the 2020 report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Royal College of Physicians, ‘The inside story: Health effects of indoor air quality on children and young people’. It found growing evidence that respiratory problems among children may be exacerbated by indoor air pollution in homes, schools and nurseries. ‘Indoor Air Quality at Home’ guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also highlights how reducing exposure to indoor pollutants helps protect health.

To help protect health in the home, Vent-Axia has been working hard to provide ventilation solutions to improve IAQ for households. For new build homes, Vent-Axia’s Sentinel Kinetic mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system boasts up to 93% heat recovery [in line with Product Characteristics Database (PCDB) data]. A vital part of an MVHR system is its filters. Inside an MVHR unit, fresh incoming air passes through a filter to remove pollen, debris and products of pollution.

For private refurbishments, the Vent-Axia PureAir Sense fan is equipped with a pioneering odour sensor that increases airflow when the air is poor, helping ensure a comfortable living environment. Meanwhile, Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) units, the PoziDry Pro and PoziDry Compact Pro, are designed to improve indoor air quality and prevent moisture build-up within social housing properties, providing a highly effective solution to help landlords control condensation and mould as well as offering high levels of air filtration.

And for advanced air purification in the home, the Vent-Axia PureAir Room air purifier cleanses the air removing harmful particles, neutralising bad smells and removing pollen and pet allergens, for a fresher and healthier home. Designed with an advanced 6-stage filtration system, the Vent-Axia PureAir Room filters out mould, dust, viruses, PM2.5, VOCs, pet allergens and odours with its High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter removing 99.9% of particles. Working automatically, it senses the air quality and delivers increased filtration when needed. The unit can also be set manually and has a timer that can run the unit for a specified number of hours before turning off.

To celebrate this year’s Clean Air Day Vent-Axia has also run a children’s drawing competition to allow children to help improve the public understanding of air pollution. The competition asked children to send in a picture either on the theme of Clean Air Day or Indoor Air Quality. The competition had three winners: Ethan, age 4; Sam, age 8 and Amita, age 12.

To find out more about Clean Air Day visit www.cleanairday.org.uk/. For up-to-date ventilation guidance and further simple tips to tackle indoor air pollution visit: www.vent-axia.com/healthyhomes. For further information on all products and services offered by Vent-Axia, telephone +44 (0)344 856 0590 or visit www.vent-axia.com.

Eight Easy Steps to Help Protect Children from Indoor Air Pollution: Reduce-Dilute-Purify

1. Avoid spraying aerosols and use eco-friendly cleaning products: Aerosols lead to a build-up of unhealthy chemicals in the air. Also, un-perfumed products with lower VOCs (volatile organic compounds) produce fewer pollutants, making the air healthier to breathe in.
2. Use unscented candles: Burning scented candles adds harmful VOCs to the air which significantly decreases indoor air quality.
3. Vacuum regularly: Keep on top of dust mites and other sources of allergies by regularly vacuuming.
4. Dry wet clothes outside or in a dryer: Drying clothes indoors adds both moisture and VOCs to its air. This increases the risk of condensation and mould and indoor air pollution.
5. Use a cooker hood: Whenever you’re cooking, turn on your cooker hood to remove pollution particulates released by cooking. It’s a good idea to use the cooker hood when cleaning your kitchen too.
6. Don’t forget to ventilate: Use mechanical ventilation to remove polluted or humid air from the home, particularly when cooking, cleaning or taking a shower. Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon PureAir Sense, Lo-Carbon Silent Fan and Lo-Carbon Svara extract polluted air from homes.
7. Use an Air Purifier: An air purifier, like the Vent-Axia PureAir Room, will remove pollutants from the air in the home for a fresher and healthier indoor environment. Air purifiers filter out a wide range of particles including mould, dust, viruses, VOCs, PM2.5, bacteria, pollen, and allergens while neutralising bad smells.
8. Clean fan filters: If a ventilation system or air purifier uses filters they should be checked regularly and cleaned or replaced when needed to ensure the system keeps filtering the air coming into a home effectively.