How To Make Your Office An Allergy-Free Zone

How To Make Your Office An Allergy-Free ZoneAccording to the forecasts of the World Health Organization, this century will become a century of allergy. This is indicated by the fact that over the past 20 years, the number of allergy sufferers around the world has grown 4-fold! Particularly frequent cases of so-called office allergies. Where does it come from and how to fight it?

What is an allergy?

Allergy is a very old disease. The first mention of it can be found in the works of Avicenna and Hippocrates around the 6th-5th century BC. However, the very term “allergy” was first introduced by the Austrian pediatrician Clemens von Pirke in 1906. Since then, skin rashes, coughing attacks, sneezing and lacrimation, arising in response to contact with pollen, honey, dust and other irritants, we call an allergic reaction.

What provokes an office allergy?

In the office, as in any other residential building, there can not be no dust, toxic substances.

Mold spores

The most powerful provoker of medical allergy is considered to be microscopic mold spores that circulate in the air of a living room. If the apartment and dacha is clear (there are bathrooms and damp cellars), then where to take fungi in the workplace? The answer is simple – mold is omnipresent! It can live in flowerpots (seen white, as if lime scale on the ground?), On the filters of domestic air conditioners, in air outlets, in attics. And inside the conditioner to grow the mushroom beds is easiest, because the conditions there are ideal for the reproduction of mold. They multiply rapidly, throwing into the air a huge number of disputes that we breathe.

What to do? To reduce the risk of office allergies to a minimum, you should regularly transplant the flowers to a new soil, and also change the air-conditioning filters (at least twice a year), especially if this household appliance has not been used for a long time (for example, after winter).

Formaldehydes

Office air is very heavy, especially if the room in which you work is located in a multi-storey business center, built of plastic and plexiglas. And all because plastic, a large cluster of office equipment, carpets, linoleum, office furniture (made not from natural wood, but from chipboard) in a warm room emit formaldehyde – toxic substances that trigger the development of allergic reactions. Especially a lot of this “good” is allocated by office equipment, which is heated during operation.

What to do? Always ventilate your workplace. In the morning, leave the window open for half an hour, as during the night the air in the room is strongly stagnant and saturated with formaldehyde. And during the day, open the balcony or window for about ten minutes, but every two hours (in the warm season it is advisable to keep the window open all the time).

Dust

Did you notice that the computer monitor screen is dusty much faster than the rest of the furniture? The fault is the electrostatic field, which creates a PC around itself, attracting home dust. And electrified dust particles are very reluctant to drop to the floor. Spinning around the computer monitor, they do not settle for a long time, allowing the working person to breathe in plenty of them. That is why many intellectual workers suffer from allergic rhinitis, complain about “sand” in the eyes and a strange superficial cough.

What to do? Before the start of the working day and at the end of the work, wipe the computer monitor and the desktop surface (including all trinkets on it) with special computer napkins. Impregnated with an antiseptic, they will not only remove the dust that has accumulated on the monitor, but also neutralize the static stress on its surface, making it impossible to attract a new portion of dust. Wipe with a damp cloth the leaves of houseplants standing on or near the desktop. Spray them with water at least 2 times a week.

Printer powder

All types of printing and copying office equipment are disliked by allergists. The fact is that a printer working not only saturates the air with an unpleasant odor, but also with microscopic particles of ink that rise into the air and irritate the mucous membranes of the airways and eyes. No less dangerous are the Xeroxes, which, during operation, release ozone harmful to the respiratory tract.

What to do? Isolate copying equipment in a separate room, but not in a pantry or corridor where there are no windows (and hence, access to fresh air), but into a well-ventilated room. Wash your hands with soap after contact with the ink, wash your face (as the ink may settle on the skin). And do not wear clothes made of synthetic threads, because artificial cloth attracts dust and particles of ink that are in the air.

Image credit: TeroVesalainen

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