Evaluation of Air Condition Use and Its Health Effects

Abstract

The use of air conditioners (ACs) in homes has become a necessity in urban cities such as Lagos State. The rapid growth in the use of AC has been attributed majorly to protection from high thermal exposures. However, there have been controversies regarding physiological discomforts attributed to AC use. This study therefore seeks to elucidate the associations between AC use and some selected physical ailments using random samples from Lagos State. A structured questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected participants. The responses were scored, and the data were analyzed accordingly. The study showed that AC devices were mostly used in sitting room > bedroom > offices > vehicles. The frequency of cold, fever, headache, and chest pain significantly (p < 0.01) associate with the use of AC in both sitting room and bedroom. The prevalence of the associated ailments increased with increase in the AC contact duration (>6 h) among AC users evaluated in the study. Most of the participants (>70%) agreed that AC use brings thermal comfort and therefore is good to health. However, prolonged exposure in indoor AC environments increased the risk of physiological discomfort for the AC users in this study. The authors therefore suggest health workers to create awareness to educate AC users of the likely dangers with prolonged exposure.

COVID-19 and Lockdown: The Potential Impact of Residential Indoor Air Quality on the Health of Teleworkers

“…According to Sarafraz, Sadani, and Teimouri (2018), household particulate matter has indoor and outdoor sources [11]. Consequently, indoor air quality is influenced by outdoor air quality [12], and indoor sources, such as heating and cooling systems, cooking facilities that use fossil fuels (oil, gas, kerosene, coal, and wood), smoke, building materials, furniture, carpets, cleaning products, maintenance products, and personal hygiene [25][26][27].…”

Distribution and comparison of bacterial communities in HVAC systems of two university buildings: Implications for indoor air quality and public health

“…Estimates are that as much as 5% of patients who visit hospitals for treatment develop nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections while in a hospital or other health care facility (Kishor and Lokesh 2018). Further, numerous studies have also shown that occupants of office buildings with HVAC systems consistently report more symptoms related to mucous membrane irritation, breathing difficulties, irritated skin and constitutional/neurological symptoms such as headache and fatigue in their buildings than do occupants of buildings with natural ventilation (Eleyowo and Amusa 2019;Mendell 2004;Prussin and Marr 2015;Yamamoto et al 2015). Such symptoms could be linked to the production of allergens, endotoxins and bacterial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by bacterial contaminants in HVAC systems.…”

“…Deterioration of indoor air quality has been attributed mostly to the presence of aeroallergens and bio-aerosols, including bacteria, fungi and viruses (Brągoszewska et al 2018;Fekadu and Getachewu 2015;Macher et al 1991). The installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in offices and other buildings is therefore designed to enhance comfort by maintaining ideal levels of humidity (typically between 40 and 60%) and temperature (Eleyowo and Amusa 2019;Ito et al 2018), as well as improving the quality of indoor air by filtering out bio-aerosols, dust, allergens and reducing odours.…”

“…The combination of prolonged exposure to HVAC systems and the potential of airborne bioaerosols to cause disease has been attributed to an increase in building-related diseases, including allergic rhinitis, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, acute toxicosis and cancer (Eleyowo and Amusa 2019;Levetin et al 2001), most of which are a result of respiratory exposure to fungal biomass and mycotoxins (Bernstein et al 2010;Yamamoto et al 2015). Unfortunately, these ailments are seldom traced back to HVAC exposures (Mendell 2004), nor are they linked, by any measure of accuracy, to certain microbial species which make up part of the microbiome of those HVAC systems.…”