How to Tackle Spring Allergies in Your Facility
This month marks the beginning of the spring season… or less affectionately known as allergy season here in Tennessee. While springtime weather means beautiful days outside and blooming foliage and flowers, it also means airborne pollen, mold spores and other allergens that cause the all-too-familiar seasonal allergy symptoms.
With 30 to 60 million people being affected by pollen or mold allergies in the United States, it’s highly likely that visitors to your facility – whether employees, clients or guests – will be fending off sneezes, stuffy noses and watery eyes this spring. Just because they’re inside doesn’t mean they can’t be exposed to allergy triggers, as stubborn allergens can become embedded in various hard and soft indoor surfaces.
In order to keep your facility a healthy, more productive environment for all who enter this season, it’s important to develop a comprehensive cleaning plan that tackles allergens on textiles and surfaces, as well as in the air.
CARPET & UPHOLSTERY
Did you know that carpet is the largest air filter in a building?
Much like an air filter in an HVAC unit, carpet requires regular maintenance. Carpet fibers can only hold so much dirt, pollen and dust before becoming completely saturated, releasing it back into the air and leading to an unhealthy indoor air environment. If you have lighter-colored carpet, you may have even noticed thin black lines around the outer edges of the carpet along baseboards. This is actually evidence of the carpet “filtering” and trapping pollutants from the air.
Standard carpet vacuuming simply won’t remove all the allergens and bacteria present; it requires regular and specialized carpet cleaning processes, including dissolving and encapsulating dirt and contaminants.
Much like carpet, upholstered furniture is a hotspot for airborne pollutants and allergens. It also requires regular cleaning and sanitizing to keep the surfaces and air cleaner, while protecting those sitting on the furniture from encountering something that may trigger allergy symptoms.
SURFACE CLEANING
Airborne allergens not only become trapped in textiles and fibers, they also settle onto hard surfaces in your facility. Sometimes, there may be even more allergens on surfaces than in the air (which you can actively see in the form of dust).
Skip the feather duster, which just kicks up the dust back up into the air, and opt for something stronger that will kill bacteria, mold, mildew and other microbes.
It’s also important to not neglect the surfaces you don’t necessarily see every day. Just because you can’t see the dust on high surfaces in your building, like ceilings, window sills and ductwork, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
When dirt and debris builds up on high surfaces, it can negatively impact the air quality in your facility. Those allergen-carrying dust particles can drift down onto other surfaces and impact the air you – and your employees and customers – breathe. Be sure to set up regular cleaning for high surface and ceiling cleaning for a comprehensive plan of attack against spring allergies.
AIR PURIFICATION
Of course, the easiest way to be exposed to allergens is through the air you breathe. This isn’t just limited to the air outside, it includes the air circulating constantly throughout your building.
Air filters and purifiers trap dust, pollen and other pollutants floating around in the air, so they can be effective at removing the source of allergies. However, different models will provide varying degrees of cleanliness depending on their specifications and the type of filter used.
We highly recommend the Synexis Biodefense System, which uses Dry Hydrogen Peroxide (DHP™) to fight viruses, bacteria, and mold in the air (and on surfaces…bonus!). It can be installed anywhere, and you can just turn it on and go about your day. DHP™ works behind the scenes with very little upkeep, no operating staff, and no disruption to anyone’s routine. It allows you to go deep – subatomic deep – to fight spring allergies.
If you need help keeping your facility clean and free from allergens this spring, we’d love to help you develop a comprehensive cleaning plan that tackles textiles, surfaces and the air. Reach out to us today!