It’s a tough year that seems to grow tougher for many of us. The fires and smoke of the past few weeks for all of us in CA, NV, OR, WA, CO and other western states taken their toll, emotionally and physically. While clean air has returned to some parts of West, October traditionally has been the worst month for air quality. Whenever, the air quality turns bad in a community, it is impossible to know if your place residence as bad as the outside air. There is simply no way without an air quality monitor if you residence is unhealthy. Even without fires, air quality in California is getting worst as the climate pushes up temperatures. Many people rely on the regional AQI (air quality index) provided by the government to guide their behavior. However, without your own Air Quality Monitor, you simply don’t know if you breathing bad air when you are exercising or sleeping in your own residence.
SCS has purchased air quality monitors for any employee who is at risk from bad air. These monitors measure PM (soot) down to 1.0 microns. The smaller the particulates the more damage it will do to your lungs. While the AQI measure relatively small particulates (2.5 microns) the monitors purchased by SCS (at no expense to employees) do measure down to 1.0 microns. Regional AQI ratings aggregate both ozone and PM are misleading for the current situation that is exclusively linked to PM and do not conform to WHO standards for safe levels ( no more than 15 ug/m3). Please read the attached e mail from Tobias for more details what ug/m3 means. One employee this week found that their residence was unsafe once they used the monitor and have now relocated.
PM emission from fires are extremely dangerous and will cause permanent damage to your lungs. Mechanical HEPA filters can take bad air down to reading of 0-1 or pure air. SCS will pay for your HEPA filter is you cannot afford it (please contact Stowe). The potential problem stems from the simple fact that your current HEPA filter, if you have one, may not be large enough to clean your air. We have found many folks have unsized filters that don’t do the job. Please use your monitor to check the efficiency.
While you can’t get C19 if you follow the guidance published widely guidelines, you cannot escape bad air without a mask at ALL TIMES. Please if you are living in bad air always use these N95 masks being sent to you.
