Latin America. Air conditioning ducts present threats to the health of millions of people in Mexico, since there is no regulation that governs the correct state of the interior of these.
Aeropureza, a Mexican air duct cleaning company, estimates that there are more than 2.9 million properties in the country that operate with central air conditioning and heating systems. The properties that present the most risks to their users or visitors are hospitals, offices, hotels and industrial complexes as they have a greater concentration of people in their facilities.
"When not cleaned, the ducts become a reservoir of dust, bacteria, viruses, mites, fungi, insects and even small animals – living or dead. This is important if you take into account that the air in a building is recirculated up to seven times in a working day. There are very few buildings that keep their ducts clean. Whether it is because we are not aware of this issue and because there is no regulatory framework, we estimate that less than 1 in 100 properties carry out cleaning work," says Rodolfo Valentino García, founder and CEO of Aeropureza.
The most critical issue is that of hospitals, since much of their white or sterile areas have air conditioning or heating systems. By regulation, the areas of hospitals that must have air-conditioned environments are operating rooms, intensive care and areas for neonates. According to the National Statistical Directory of Economic Units of INEGI, there are 5,255 public hospitals and 2,606 private hospitals.
According to the National Institute of Safety and Health at Work of the Government of Spain (INSST)[1], diseases related to indoor air quality are hypersensitivity pneumonitis, humidifier fever, asthma, rhinitis, dermatitis, as well as infections such as legionellosis (Legionnaires' disease), Pontiac fever, tuberculosis, common cold, flu, as well as other infections of unknown chemical or physical origin, including cancer.
Symptoms related to air quality
- Eyes: dryness, itching/stinging, tearing, redness.
- Upper airways: (nose and throat) dryness, itching/stinging, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, epistaxis, sore throat
- Lungs: chest tightness, choking sensation, wheezing, dry cough, bronchitis
- Skin: redness, dryness, generalized and localized itching
- General: headache, weakness, drowsiness/lethargy, difficulty concentrating, irritability, anxiety, nausea, dizziness.
*Source: Encyclopedia of Occupational Safety, Chapter 44, INSST
In addition to generating risks of contracting diseases, the lack of cleaning in the pipelines reduces the quality of life, generates greater energy consumption, lower productivity in people and increased expenses in the particular case of hospitals due to nosocomial infections.
Regarding the regulations in other parts of the world, in Spain there is Royal Decree 238/2013 that requires the review and cleaning of air ducts in buildings. For its part, in the United States there is the ACR standard, issued by NADCA that indicates how air ducts should be evaluated, verified and cleaned.
To know the internal state of the air conditioning ducts, it is necessary to carry out a visual inspection, document it with digital cameras and take physical samples of waste. After evaluating the findings and if necessary cleaning, it can be carried out with an advance of 60 to 80 linear meters per day at non-working times, preferably.
