How Service Providers Can Ensure Accurate Indoor Air Quality Testing for Their Customers

How Service Providers Can Ensure Accurate Indoor Air Quality Testing for Their Customers

On average, Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, according to data from the EPA. Concentrations of air pollutants are often 2-5 times higher than outdoors. It’s no wonder that we face health issues like allergies and asthma. Air quality service providers seek to provide the most accurate results for their customers. But it also helps to understand some important differences between traditional methods and the latest testing technology.

Bioaerosols

Biological aerosols are a subset of particles that can pollute the air. They consist of living and nonliving elements of biological sources, such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, pollen, and mold. Bioaerosols can have a great negative impact on air quality, both indoors and out. But outdoors the wind usually dilutes them enough to keep them below harmful levels. Indoors, however, they can accumulate to dangerous concentrations of pathogens, allergens, and endotoxins. It is important for service providers to measure these levels in their air quality testing.

Air Mold Spore Levels

Indoor air quality professionals usually inspect buildings for water damage and fungal growth because these visible signs also give an indication of air quality. They are working based on the reasoning that indoor air mold spore levels should be consistent with outdoor levels. The only real practical value of this approach is to show the efficacy of HVAC systems in removing outdoor spore populations from interior air.

For better accuracy, air quality professionals must use modern technology to check for a range of contaminants that cannot be detected using spore trap samples. An accurate air quality test will identify the ultra-fine particles that can invade the lungs and cause serious health problems. Traditional testing methods (like spore traps) capture only large particles. An electrokinetic particle capture method gathers a much bigger sample of much smaller particles. Such specificity is necessary for maximum accuracy from the service providers and peace of mind for residents and customers.