Hospital air purifiers strictly follow the medical-grade in their operation. In fact, having the proper level of hygiene in the atmosphere inside the clinical areas leads to minimizing the spread of pathogens among patients and other clinical vulnerable communities.
From today’s Know Your Facts, let us talk about what we should care about before selecting hospital air purifiers. Read and enjoy.
Does “Medical Grade” need Hospital Air Purifiers?
If we are concerned about the market air purifier categorization, there are tons of “medical grade” type purifiers without care about fundamentals given by following FDA abstraction guidelines.
For the purposes of this guidance, FDA recommends that manufacturers of air purifiers evaluate or perform the following:
- Demonstrate a 4 log reduction (through a combination of capture or destruction) of claimed particulates.
- If intended for use against bacteria, effectiveness against representative gram-positive and gram-negative species.
- If intended for use related to SARS-CoV-2, effectiveness against a representative virus
- If the device generates ozone, the maximum acceptable ozone level per 21 CFR 801.415.
- If intended for use in areas that have a sterile field or controlled airflow, a risk assessment to address turbulent airflow and/or potential site contamination.
So, according to these guidelines, a medical-grade air purifier needs test approval to capture at least 99.99% of 1.0-micron size particles.
So the practical situation is that this kind of Medical Grade is not much required for Hospital Air Purifiers.
Most HEPA air filters can capture viruses and most kinds of common pathogens in the indoor atmosphere. Medical grade is the marketing term the producer uses without proper contemplation.
Do UV filtration need for Hospital Air Purifiers?
According to marketing tactics, UV light can kill viruses due to its high energy capability. Nevertheless, the practical situation is that UV filters cannot kill the virus in 99.9% (as mentioned in the label) under the given parameters.
The hidden side of these purifiers comes with HEPA air filters, which can capture viruses in a single filtration pass.
Also, UV light might damage the martial filter mask in the purifier other than filtering. Apart from that;
- UV light reduces the filtration efficiency
- UV light is not cost-effective
- UV light has a sort of danger
This is the reason behind selecting HEPA filtered hospital air purifiers most of the time.
What about Ionizer Filtrations?
The primary side of the ionizer techniques is; that air purifiers release negative ions into the atmosphere.
After attaching to these negative ions, contaminates are attracted to walls, floors, and surfaces. But there are some practical issues in selecting them as Hospital Air Purifiers.
For examples:
1. Ionizer air purifiers are not quite strong
The practical issue is that most hospital air contaminants might be more significant than usual in particle levels. So, Ionizer air purifiers cannot accurately operate in clinical areas as expected.
2. There is a potential to create volatile organic gases
According to research studies ionizers can increase the VOC in indoor areas. Most VOC compounds like;
- Acetone
- Formaldehyde
- Acetaldehyde
- Ethanol
- Toluene
3. Ionizers release harmful compounds, like
- Particulate Matter-PM 2.5
- Ozone
According to the research articles, the amount of these particles indoors wise relatively higher with ionizer air purifiers than in normal conditions.
So HEPA is good as Hospital Air Purifiers
Without any exaggeration, HEPA purifiers are the best design for the filtration of most kin of biological air contaminants like bacteria, germs, and viruses. Mostly for hospitals.
Also, in MERV ratings, HEPA stays efficiencies of MERV 17 to 20, which is highly efficient and quite suitable for medical conditions. Most the clinical areas like,
- Operating rooms & Treatment rooms
- Testing laboratories
- Research laboratories
- Equipment rooms
- Pharmacies
- Infectious disease areas
are highly recommended for HEPA air purifier usage.
Before selecting the Hospital Air purifiers
- Select the air purifier and the filter
- Consider the atmosphere of the capacity enough or not
- MERV rating (of filter)
- CADR rating (of air purifier)
According to the CDC regulations, the air purifier’s CADR value should be six or more times higher than the space which is going to filter in the hospital area.
Read More – What is a HEPA Filter Air Purifier?
Read More – KNOW YOUR FACTS
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