latest news and science updates from airmid healthgroup
COVID-19, a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has infected very large numbers of people in a short period of time (since it was first recognised on 01/12/2019). It appears to be highly infectious with a significant mortality rate. Current estimates suggest it would be around 2%, much less than the fatality rate of other human Coronaviruses, such as SARS (9.5%) and MERS (37.1%), but greater than that of the seasonal influenza virus (0.04 – 0.088%).
What do you do if you feel that your home or office is stuffy? There are some obvious benefits to opening a window. An open window helps provide a room with air changes, which means the air within a space is exchanged. Air from an open window can replace the stagnant room air, which may be contaminated with mold, bacteria or viruses that could cause illness. The increased ventilation can help decrease carbon-dioxide levels that build over time due to room occupants’ breathing. High levels of carbon dioxide can cause fatigue and headaches. Harmful chemicals that have off-gassed from paints, furniture, or cooking can also be removed with adequate air changes from an open window.
RTE’s environmental awareness program Eco Eye enlisted airmid healthgroup’s help in their recent episode on “Hazardous Waste”. The episode examined the health and environmental impacts of common household chemicals and investigated less hazardous and “eco-friendly” alternatives. We were asked to compare the effectiveness of homemade cleaning products and more typical store-bought brands against bacteria.
This article originally appeared on the 11th December in the Irish Independent and online on www.independent.ie.
There is increasing recognition that air pollution is not just an outdoors problem, it is important to also consider indoor air quality. Indoor air quality is significant because it can affect our comfort, productivity and, most importantly, our health. You can influence your indoor air quality in three main ways: source control (ie limiting the source of pollutants), ventilation, and cleaning of any pollutants that may be present. Here we break those three main strategies down even further to list 10 things you can do to improve your indoor air quality.
1. Be air aware
airmid healthgroup was pleased to attend and sponsor Cleaning Products US 2017, which was held in Alexandria, VA from the 10th to the 12th October. This annual event brings together researchers, experts and leaders from a range of companies across the cleaning products supply chain including Church & Dwight, P&G, Clorox, Kimberley Clark, SC Johnson, Unilever, Sun Products, Reckitt Benckiser, Dow Chemical and DuPont.
The Research & Innovation Conference & Exhibition was held earlier this week. It was a busy day, especially as this year the conference was co-located with the inaugural National Health Expo. Each of the events had a main stage and several seminar rooms where talks were held throughout the day. With a line-up of over 100 speakers it’s an event worth attending as a team, because so many interesting talks were on simultaneously!
Sometimes people can mix up these indoor pests, so this blog post will describe some of the differences between the two.
June marked the first annual National Healthy Homes Month. This initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was launched to provide people with the opportunity to learn more about housing and its effects on health. The National Center for Healthy Housing estimates that approximately 35 million metropolitan U.S. homes have at least one health and safety hazard. As a means to tackle this issue, HUD set out eight healthy home principles that can be followed to make the home environment healthier.
Yesterday the Science Gallery was the venue for a Health Research Board (HRB) sponsored talk on antimicrobial resistance entitled “Bugs versus Drugs”. It was an evening of insightful discussion between Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick (Consultant Microbiologist Beaumont Hospital and Senior Lecturer at RCSI), Dr Andrew Murphy (a General Practitioner and Professor in NUI Galway) and science journalist Maryn McKenna. The broadcaster Jonathan McCrea hosted the conversation. As the audience included non-scientists, Dr Fitzpatrick started by explaining that while “bugs” in microbiology include bacteria, viruses and fungi, antibiotics only work against bacteria and often only against a specific type of bacteria. Antibiotic resistance refers to the strategies bacteria develop to prevent antibiotics from acting against them.
