Is Your Indoor Air Making You Sick?

It's quite possible that your indoor air is contributing to poor health. Since we have made homes more air tight, and more and more materials in our homes give off toxic volatile organic compounds, the air you breathe in your home could be 10-20 times more toxic than the outdoor air.

Clearly, you need to have a quality air purifier in your home. However, there are so many choices; it becomes difficult to know what to do. After studying air purification solutions for some time, I finally came up with a recommendation; the Air Oasis filters that are using the most advanced technology now available; Photo catalytic Oxidation (PCO)

I highly recommend you get comfortable, turn up your computers speakers and listen to this telephone interview I recently did with Dr. Jeff Bennett, from Air Oasis. If you prefer, pick up a free CD of this interview at any of our offices so you can listen in your car or home CD player.  This is important information you need to know.

Unlike traditional outdated filters, Photo catalytic Oxidation (PCO) just doesn’t catch the particles in a filter, it destroys them, while also destroying and neutralizing those dangerous VOCs. And at the same time, there is not potential dangers like their may be with ozone and negative ions. The process is called Photo catalytic Oxidation (PCO)

The science behind Photo catalytic Oxidation (PCO) can be traced to Einstein, who showed in 1905 that a photon of light would activate a metal oxide.  This process harnesses photon energy to destroy many toxic organic compounds that are hazardous to human health and the environment.

The key to PCO is the photo catalyst.  A photo catalyst is a chemical compound that becomes highly reactive when exposed to various wavelengths of UV light.  In the presence of organic pollutants, such as hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, alcohol, ketenes and aromatics compounds, the active photo catalyst attacks the pollutants’ chemical bonds, converting the toxic compounds into benign constituents, such as water and carbon dioxide.

Photo catalytic systems have the ability to convert toxic carbon monoxide, at room temperature, to non harmful carbon dioxide.  This is a major development because carbon monoxide often is a cause of sick-building syndrome and it cannot be removed from the air with any type of absorption media.

Several attributes of PCO make it a strong candidate for indoor air quality applications. Pollutants, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are absorbed on the surface and are degraded by a reduction reaction. VOCs in the air or on surfaces in a room are destroyed by oxidation, producing primarily carbon dioxide and water vapor. Thus, rather than simply changing the phase and concentrating the contaminant, the absolute toxicity of the treated air stream is reduced, Photo catalytic Reactor to operate as a self-cleaning filter, relative to organic material on the catalyst surface. These attributes contribute to the Photo catalytic Oxidation being an effective process for removing and destroying low level pollutants in indoor air, including bacteria and fungi. 

Because PCO technology is an extremely powerful purification method, PCO air purifiers have the ability to eliminate particles as small as 0.001 microns, including the tiny penetrating particles that can absorb into your lungs and cause damage (HEPA filters are only able to filter out particles as small as 0.3 microns). Studies have also shown that in addition to VOCs, toxic gases, and chemicals, photo catalytic air purifiers can also render gases like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide harmless - pollutants which can often escape standard air purifiers utilizing HEPA or ionic technology alone.

Those concerned with the possible health effects associated with air purifiers will be glad to know that PCO air cleaners have been found to be much safer than ozone and ionization, and they work well for those with asthma, allergies and multiple chemical sensitivity. 

There are many "knock off" air purifiers on the market that claim to use PCO technology. If not used properly PCO technology will do little to purify your air. In fact it can cause an increase in harmful contamination.

Researchers have found with many PCO air purifiers that because of incomplete decomposition of the VOC's in the air stream there is a net production of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, formic acid and acetic acid. Of particular concern was that the outlet concentrations of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were 3.4 and 4.6 times the inlet concentrations, respectively. Both formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are recognized as important indoor toxicants. Formaldehyde is classified as a human carcinogen. Governmental guidelines suggest keeping indoor concentrations of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde at very low levels.

Many brands of air purifiers are beginning to use cheap imitations of PCO technology in their product. Most use cheap titanium dioxide (the basic white pigment in paint) as their catalyst. They then combine this with a cheap foreign UV lamp and call it a PCO air purifier. These air purifier will not usually provide any University studies to validate any claims.

An American company called Air Oasis developed a proprietary patent-pending five metal nano catalyst that is far superior to any cheap imitations on the market. Their UV lamps use a proprietary long life coating to more than double their life over the competition. Preliminary results from West Texas A&M University show huge reductions in formaldehyde and other VOCs. Rapid reductions in odors where also observed.

There are many abbreviated names today describing this newer generation of air purifiers. They all boil down to using a UVC (also known as UVX, germicidal, hv etc.) lamp in conjunction with a catalyst to create oxidizers that clean your air and sanitize surfaces. Air Oasis uses a patent-pending proprietary nano Nickel HCT™ catalyst that is unique to the competition. It utilizes five rare metals, nano nickel and other nano metals in conjunction with a hydrating agent to provide PCO results unparalleled in the market place.

I have learned that the proprietary patent-pending Air Oasis nano Nickel HCT catalyst is superior to any PCO catalyst currently on the market. Imitation air purifiers use cheap titanium dioxide (TiO2) alone as a catalyst. TiO2 is the cheapest, most available, catalyst metal on the market. It's often used as the white pigment in standard house paint costing only pennies. The nano Nickel HCT contains five rare catalyst metals. We also use nano size metals to increase the kinetic rate of reaction.  The Air Oasis UV lamps utilize a proprietary long life coating allowing them to outlast any UV lamp on the market. Don't be fooled by cheap imitations.

By utilizing a broad spectrum 254 nm UV light Air oasis uses the same oxidizing and ionizing benefits found in nature, created by the sun. By combining the UV light with the Air Oasis patent-pending nano Nickel HCT™ catalyst this unit achieves unparalleled results.

The other good news about these units is that there is virtually no maintenance. No filters to change, it uses very little electric and makes no noise. All you have to do is change the UV lamp every three years. Yes, that’s three years! And the UV lamps are very reasonably priced. 

These Air oasis units take very little room in your home, use very little electric and have no maintenance, except to change

The Whole House unit covers up to 3000 Sq Feet, uses only 4” x 4 “ X  14.5 “ tall and only costs $499.99

The Apartment unit covers up to 1000 Sq Feet, uses only 4” x 4 “ X  13.5 “ tall and only costs $399.99

The Room unit covers up to 500 Sq Feet, uses only 3” x 3 “ X  12 “ tall and only costs $299.99

If you have a larger home, it may be best to put a whole house in the living area, and room units in each bedroom.

And finally, if you prefer, you can install induct units so that your entire home is reveling clean air without having units setting around your home. Call our office for information and pricing on the induct units.