Cosmetics industry tackles air pollution effects

Pollution can accelerate normal
aging, experts say.

Many people want younger looking skin and one of the ways to do that includes protecting it from sun damage.

But now a slew of products are also claiming to protect skin from pollutants in the air.

Actress Aicha Reid has had a strict skincare regimen since high school. Lately, she's noticed the damage to her skin from air pollution.

"It's happened before where I'm walking by a bus and then all of a sudden there's just like this thick black smoke just wafting into my face and I'm just like, 'my pores!'" she said.

Reid is not alone. A recent Mintel report found that in the U.S. 34 percent of women are concerned about the effects of pollution on their skin, and cosmetic companies are taking notice.

"There's been an explosion of products that are either being developed or remarketed for the purpose of decreasing damage from air pollution," said Dr. Amy Derick a board-certified dermatologist and American Academy of Dermatology member.

Products are now being promoted to remove particulates from the skin, or neutralize free radicals, which are molecules experts say injure the skin's cells and cause inflammation.

"Pollution can accelerate normal aging by breaking down collagen and increasing free radicals in the skin, so I think that it can accelerate the aging process in certain people," Derick said.

Experts said exposure to pollution over time can lead to dullness, wrinkles and dark spots. Dr. Derick recommends using a cleansing brush to decrease the amount of pollution left on your skin overnight and also a topical antioxidant.

Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi, a board-certified dermatologist and American Academy of Dermatology member, said researching products is essential.

"Find out what products have been shown to be scientifically helpful. Find out which ones are not just jumping on the pollution bandwagon, and those that have really gone and put in some research behind it," she said.

Reid said her skin looks even better now that she is paying attention to the air around her.

"I've noticed a major improvement in my skin since I started taking, you know, proper steps to sort of counter the effects of air pollution damage," Reid said.

Industry studies are underway to further investigate the effects of pollution on different types of skin. Industry experts also said we can expect even more anti-pollution skin care products on the market in the near future.

Source: ABC7

Air pollution in the form of chemicals and particles does not only threaten the skin, it may also affect your health. Electrocorp has designed a wide range of commercial and industrial air cleaners that provide cleaner air, including air cleaners for the beauty industry. For more information, contact Electrocorp: 1-866-667-0297.

Micro-monitors to warn of air pollution hot spots

Small air quality monitors can provide valuable information
about local air pollution levels to citizens and the public.

Louisville is planning to monitor air pollution on a micro-level, potentially shedding light on city "hot spots" that could be damaging people's health.

Using new technology tied to the Internet, Louisville philanthropist Christy Brown is helping to deploy a fleet of micro-monitors about as big as a softball that will continuously sniff the air and provide individuals — as well as the public — a quick view of the pollution surrounding them.

Brown announced the program to deploy the first 100 so-called Air Quality Eggs at a cocktail supper for 200 guests at her northeast Louisville home. They will monitor for nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulates, temperature and humidity.

The goal, Brown said, is to "find a new way to care for each other." And Mayor Greg Fischer, who frequently speaks about the need for compassion and innovation, is endorsing the effort.

"We are living in an extraordinary time ... with all these new tools we have not had available before," he told those at Thursday's event. "You may not understand this egg thing, but go ahead and become a civic entrepreneur."

While not as reliable as government sensors, the readings do give people an approximate idea of pollution levels immediately nearby, so they can be more informed in seeking better air quality, said Dirk Swart, a co-founder of the company that makes the monitors, Wicked Device LLC of Ithaca, N.Y.

"The goal is to make information actionable," by making it immediate and personal, he said.

Ted Smith, the mayor's innovation czar, said that the party's participants purchased as many as 100 of the monitors. When bought from Brown's new nonprofit Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, each monitor costs $200 a piece. That's less than the $243 that the company charges for the same package on its Wicked Device website.

Smith said people can donate the eggs so a project team can place them in strategic locations. That way they can search for potential pollution hot spots that may be missed by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District's network of six monitoring stations, he said.

"The best possible outcome is a closer connection between health and well-being and our environment," he said.

For those who want to track more pollutants, they may purchase an egg directly from the Wicked Device website, adding packages that detect ozone and volatile organic compounds, which contribute to smog.

All the data will be sent automatically to the Air Quality Egg website, as well as a special website being developed for Louisville, which will include other information such as the location where people who are participating in a related project are having asthma attacks.

The special Louisville website will also compare Egg readings to an index, giving people a sense of what the data means, Smith said.

Accuracy uncertain

The Air Quality Egg was launched in 2012, part of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls the next generation of air monitoring. There are also businesses that have developed small monitors that connect to smart phone applications, providing instant readings of what their users are breathing.

"In the last two years, we have seen an explosion around these technologies," said Ron Williams, a research chemist with the EPA's Office of Research and Development.

He said EPA has been conducting laboratory and field tests to determine how accurate the personal monitors are, and said "that has yet to be determined. It's certainly not regulatory grade."

Without commenting specifically on the Air Quality Egg, he said "most of these devices have value for low-cost citizen science."

Swart acknowledged that their data can't match the quality of official government monitors.

"We are not trying to be the EPA," he said.

Similar community initiatives are underway with the Air Quality Egg in Boston and the country of Georgia, he said.

Arnita Gadson, executive director of the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission, said officials working on new air-monitoring initiative will have to be careful about how they communicate with the public, because there are many types of air pollution, and the personal monitors only track a few.

In addition to Louisville's six official monitoring stations, Indiana and Kentucky run several others in the region that are used to determine the community's compliance with federal clean-air rules.

They sample for a variety of pollutants, such as ozone and the smallest of particulates, and have shown that in recent decades, air quality locally has improved.

While those monitors are meant to characterize air quality across a region, air pollution can be different from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Search for hot spots

That's where the micro-level reporting may be especially helpful — helping to identify potential hot spots and their sources.

In general, people who live in more polluted cities don't live as long, said Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor of medicine at University of Louisville.

And there can also be places in cities where air quality is worse, he said, calling them hot spots where air pollution can also damage people's bodies and make them sick.

The effort harkens back more than a decade when Louisville was gripped in a fight over toxic air from industrial sites.

Smith said he plans to seek advice from the Louisville air district and and its health department on where to place the air monitors that people donate.

Air district staff are willing to do that, said Keith Talley Sr., executive director of the agency.

He said it's too soon to evaluate the citizen monitoring program but said it "could point out some stuff we need to look at."

The biggest impact, he said, may be "the community awareness it will bring."

Source: The Courier-Journal
This article has been edited for length.

Concerned about poor air quality at work or at home? Long-term exposure to airborne chemicals and other contaminants may affect your health and well-being. In most cases, an industrial-strength air purifier with a large activated carbon and HEPA air filters can help improve indoor air quality and remove air contaminants such as chemicals, fumes, particles, allergens, mold and more. Contact Electrocorp for more information and a free consultation.

NY air quality rules would target restaurants, food trucks

Restaurants might need to install
devices to avoid air pollution.

Mayor Bill de Blasio backs proposed antipollution laws that would require many restaurants and commercial kitchens to install emission filters on ovens and char-broilers, ban new wood-burning fireplaces and encourage refrigerated trucks to switch to battery power from diesel fuel.

The proposals, discussed before the City Council's Committee on Environmental Protection, would affect eateries across the five boroughs -- mom-and-pop pizzerias, food vendor trucks, high-volume char-broilers and vehicles that deliver or serve refrigerated food or beverages.

Sponsors say the rules would save hundreds of lives every year by removing from the air unhealthy particulate matter that causes diseases from emphysema and asthma to diabetes.

The New York City Hospitality Alliance and the New York State Restaurant Association, which represent many of the affected establishments, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Food purveyors would need to change the way they operate under the proposals.

Char-broilers in establishments that cook at least 875 pounds of meat or seafood a week would need to install the devices. So would restaurants with coal or wood-fired pizza ovens.

Food trucks that don't switch to the cleanest technology -- currently battery-powered refrigeration -- would face annual fees. Trucks that deliver perishables such as frozen food would also face new restrictions on idling.

The rules would also ban the building of new wood-burning fireplaces anywhere in the city, including homes. Only fireplaces that burn fuels such as natural gas would be allowed.

Existing fireplaces could not legally burn wood with moisture content greater than 20 percent. Moist wood, officials say, releases more pollutants than the drier variety.

Source: NewsDay

If you are exposed to poor indoor air quality at work or at home, consider using a portable, industrial-strength air cleaner from Electrocorp. The long-lasting activated carbon and HEPA air filters remove potentially dangerous and odorous contaminants from the ambient air. For more information, contact Electrocorp.

Work performance suffers from poor IAQ: Study

New research shows air pollution might make you bad at your job

Fine particles may infiltrate deep into
the lungs and cause health problems.

In 2011, researchers at UC San Diego and Columbia University were the first to demonstrate a link between air pollution and reduced productivity among outdoor agricultural workers.

Now those researchers are back with a new study, entitled “Particulate Pollution and the Productivity of Pear Packers.”

The study shows, for the first time, a significant link between air pollution and the productivity of indoor workers.

The pollutant in question is fine particulate matter, or PM2.5. It’s notable for its tiny size (less than 1/30th the width of a human hair), which allows it to infiltrate deep into your lungs and potentially even your bloodstream, where it can cause all sorts of health problems.

The authors note that PM2.5 can easily enter buildings: “Unlike other pollutants, which either remain outside or rapidly break down once indoors, going inside may do little to reduce one’s exposure to PM2.5.”

To figure out how this affected indoor workers, the authors drew on data from an indoor pear-packing factory in northern California.

“We focused on pear packing for this study since it was located near an air pollution monitor and paid workers piece rate, which allowed us to measure individual worker productivity on a daily level,” author Joshua Graff Zivin told me.

What they found was that every 10-microgram per cubic meter increase in PM2.5 levels decreased worker productivity by 0.6%, as measured by the number pear boxes packed by each worker.

Since workers were paid piecemeal, this translated to a decrease of roughly 41 cents per hour, per 10 micrograms of PM2.5 relationship between worker productivity and air pollution.

Moreover, the effect increased at higher PM2.5 levels: levels between 15 and 20 micrograms reduced earnings by $0.53 per hour, levels between 20 and 25 micrograms decrease earnings by $1.03 per hour, and when levels exceed 25 micrograms/cubic meter earnings shrink by $1.88 per hour.

One key point is that these levels are all well below current U.S. air quality standards for PM2.5, which stand at 35 micrograms/m3. The U.S. didn’t even start regulating this pollutant until 1997.

Across the U.S., PM2.5 levels routinely cross this 35 microgram threshold every day. Airnow.gov, an EPA website that tracks air quality in U.S. cities, is currently showing PM2.5 levels of 69 micrograms in Atlanta, 72 in Cleveland, and a whopping 140 in Albuquerque, NM.

If those figures seem high be thankful you don’t live in Beijing, where PM2.5 levels topped 250 micrograms today.

One major implication of the study is that reductions of PM2.5 can have significant economic benefits. The authors estimate that across the entire U.S. manufacturing sector, reductions in PM2.5 since 1997 has led to an aggregate labor savings of $19.5 billion – a previously-unknown benefit of fine particulate regulation.

The larger question, of course, is whether these findings extend even to workers in retail and other regular office settings.

“We are very curious about this,” Graff Zivin told me. “Whether more cognitive indoor activities are subject to similar effects is an important area for future research, but there is certainly a plausible channel through which these could occur.”

Source: Washington Post

Improve indoor air quality at work

Poor indoor air quality can not only affect work performance, but also workers' health and well-being as well as morale.

For improved IAQ, Electrocorp offers industrial and commercial air cleaners with activated carbon and HEPA, which effectively remove fine particles, odors, chemicals, fumes, mold, bacteria and viruses from the ambient air.

The wide range of units includes air cleaners for offices, air cleaners for chemical processing plants, air cleaners for welding fume extraction, air cleaners for hospital and health care, and many more workplace uses.

Contact Electrocorp for more information and a free consultation.

Longterm air pollution exposure linked to heart attacks and angina

Association persists at levels of exposure below current European limits

Outdoor air pollution also means poor
indoor air quality and health risks.

Long term exposure to particulate matter in outdoor air is strongly linked to heart attacks and angina, and this association persists at levels of exposure below the current European limits, suggests research conducted at the Department of Epidemiology in Rome, Italy and published on bmj.com.

The results support lowering of the EU limits for particulate matter air pollution.

Ambient particulate matter air pollution is estimated to cause 3.2 million deaths worldwide per year, but the association between long term exposure to air pollution and incidence of coronary events remains controversial.

In the European Union the current annual limit for particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres (μm) or less (known as PM2.5) is 25 µg/m3, which is far above that implemented in the United States (12 µg/m3). And a 2013 BMJ study found average PM2.5 concentrations over a five year period in Beijing was more than 10 times the World Health Organization air quality guideline value of 10 µg/m3.

So an international team of researchers, coordinated by the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, set out to study the effect of long term exposure to airborne pollutants on acute coronary events (heart attack and unstable angina) in 11 cohorts participating in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE).

The study involved over 100,000 people with no history of heart disease enrolled from 1997 to 2007 and followed for an average of 11.5 years.

Mathematical models were used to estimate concentrations of air pollution from particulate matter at each participant's residential address. A total of 5,157 participants experienced coronary events during the follow-up period.

After taking account of several other risk factors, including other illness, smoking, and socioeconomic factors, the researchers found that a 5 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5particulate matter was associated with a 13% increased risk of coronary events and a 10μg/m3 increase in PM10 particulate matter was associated with a 12% increased risk of coronary events.

Positive associations were detected below the current annual European limit of 25 μg/m3 for PM2.5 and below 40 μg/m3 for PM10 and positive but non-significant associations were found with other pollutants.

Further analyses did not alter the results significantly.

"Our study suggests an association between long term exposure to particulate matter and incidence of coronary events," say the authors.

They point out that these associations remained for exposure concentrations below the current European limits, and suggest that the burden of disease attributable to outdoor particulate matter "might be underestimated if only estimates of mortality are considered."

The results of this study, together with other ESCAPE findings, "support lowering of European limits for particulate air pollution to adequately protect public health," they conclude.

This study "has specific relevance to the management of air quality in Europe," say Professors Michael Brauer and John Mancini from the University of British Columbia, in an accompanying editorial.

They also refer to the 2013 BMJ Beijing study and say: "The important impact of air pollution on cardiovascular disease highlighted by these two papers supports efforts to meet existing and even more stringent air quality standards to minimise cardiovascular morbidity and mortality."

Source: BMJ-British Medical Journal via EurekAlerts!

Do you work or live in a place where air pollution is a concern? Electrocorp has designed industrial-strength air purifiers with activated carbon and HEPA to remove airborne pollutants, including particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, odors, chemicals, mold and more. Contact Electrocorp for more information.

Commercial charbroilers pollute more than trucks

Restaurateurs may be the next on the chopping block with air quality regulators after a new study revealed that  commercial charbroilers emit even more particulate matter into the air than diesel engines.

“Emissions from commercial charbroilers are a very significant uncontrolled source of particulate matter…more than twice the contribution by all of the heavy-duty diesel trucks,” said Bill Welch, principal development engineer for the study at UC Riverside’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-Cert).

“For comparison, an 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the freeway to put out the same mass of particles as a single charbroiled hamburger patty.”

A proposed control — a device that removes grease from the exhaust and traps it in water — will be tested  at the CE-CERT test laboratory . Researchers will evaluate the air stream released by the commercial charbroiler before and after they pass through the control device and measure how effective it is.

According to Welch, the testing involves “cooking a lot of hamburger patties,” but they don’t go to waste. After the emissions test, the hamburger patties are donated to a Redlands Regional food bank.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking for affordable industrial particle control? Contact an Electrocorp air quality expert at 1-866-667-0297.

Study determines high-impact indoor air pollutants

Gaseous pollutants such as formaldehyde can affect
a building's occupants, study says.

Indoor air pollution can affect a person’s health and well-being, health authorities say, but not all contaminants are equal.

In a study on the negative effects of poor indoor air quality, gaseous pollutants such as formaldehyde and acrolein as well as small particles and particulates turned out to be the bad guys.

Formaldehyde and acrolein had the largest estimated number of annual disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost per 100,000 people of all the various indoor pollutants considered, at 46 (95% CI 0.2 to 14,000) and 47 (95% CI 2.4 to 1050), respectively, according to Jennifer Logue and colleagues from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California, as reported by MedPage Today.

The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.

This means that these pollutants are just as bad as or even worse than radon and secondhand smoke.
Tiny particles proved to be another concern, because they have been linked to incidents of stroke, chronic bronchitis, and premature death.

The researchers wanted to find out the health impact of poor indoor air quality at home. They used disease impact models and incidence to identify those indoor air pollutants (IAPs) with the greatest impacts on health.

Without taking radon and secondhand smoke into account, the researchers estimate that the total annual health impact of poor IAQ in U.S. homes is 1,100 DALYs per 100,000 people.

Simple steps to clean indoor air

Concerned building owners and facility managers can easily improve the indoor air quality in their home, with three simple action steps:

1. Source control: Limit chemical-laden products and choose more natural products whenever possible. This pertains to renovation and constructions materials, furniture, cleaning products, textiles, etc.
2. Ventilation: Make sure the existing ventilation system is working and is well maintained. Change the filters regularly.
3. Air cleaning: A portable air cleaner with many pounds of activated carbon + HEPA can help remove contaminants from the air, including many chemicals and VOCs such as formaldehyde and acrolein, particles, dust, allergens and more.

Electrocorp offers industrial-strength air cleaners for specific rooms or to be attached to existing ventilation systems, featuring large activated carbon filters, HEPA and UV (optional).

The multistage filtration system traps a wide range of contaminants, including VOCs and gases, particulate matter, bacteria, viruses and mold.

Contact Electrocorp for more information and more options.