Restaurant
We all go to restaurants to have a good time with our loved ones but we end up causing harm to our own selves through the pollutants that stay afloat in the air surrounding us inside the food spaces. In restaurants, the grill, barbeque and char broilers are among the few sources that produce abundant pollution in the air. These pollutants can in turn cause several breathing and lung problems.
What are the pollutants present
in restaurants?
Grills and Char boilers: Producing CO2 that could kill you in the long run
A large number of restaurants that serve barbeque use grill machines and char boilers. These mediums emit carbon monoxide in huge amount and a lot of it is inhaled by the cooks in front of the grills. The rest of carbon monoxide spreads across the indoor space and affects everyone present there to relish their meal. The carbon compound is then released into the outside air which could drift inside your home and cause great risks to your health. Carbon monoxide is a very poisonous gas that may lead to brain damage or death in case of prolonged exposure.
Smoke: A dangerous bullet for the asthmatics
Every restaurant’s cooking chamber produces a heavy amount of smoke and the smoke cannot be immediately thrown out by the ventilation system and so it affects the cooks and at times the customers. Smoke consists of various pollutants that may cause respiratory problems and aggravate symptoms of asthma. Smoke is always said to affect a person equivalently to second hand cigarette smoke.
Grease: Very harmful pollutant that also brings the risk of a fire hazard
Grease is said to be the most acting pollutant released in restaurants that especially use fryers, cook fatty meat and use lot of oil in their dishes. The hazardous fact about grease is that it settles in the restaurant itself which is major threat to hygiene of the indoor space. Also, upon large accumulation it starts to threaten fire hazard risks to the indoor space.
How to ward off indoor air pollution from restaurants?
Air Purifiers consist of various filters that almost negate the indoor pollutants and return the air quality to safer levels. While there are many air purification filters that are used in air purifiers, there are only some that are very relevant to air purification at restaurants. While it’s good to have several filters, the filters that are must are Activated Carbon Filter, HEPA filter, ESP and UV filter.A HEPA filter and Activated Carbon filter does the job of completely removing smoke and harmful gases from the air and reduce indoor air pollution.
Activated Carbon: When carbon is treated with oxygen, it causes numerous tiny pores to open up on the surface of the carbon. These pores are so many in number that one pound of activated carbon provides 60-150 acres of surface area with the objective to trap pollutants. The activated carbon filter works by the principal of adsorption where a gas element bonds with the surface of a solid. The solid material here being the activated carbon, which absorbs airborne pollutants equivalent to 60% of its weight. Once the air borne particles are absorbed by the filter, only the pure air flows out.
HEPA Filter: A HEPA filter is always used in combination with an activated carbon filter to achieve highly efficient air filtration. The result being removal of wide array of air borne pollutants and asthma triggers like dust mites, pollen, mould, pet dander etc. The HEPA filter alone is the most efficient filter for people suffering from allergies and asthma. It removes 99.97% of airborne irritants which are of the size 0.3 microns.
Ultraviolet tube with PCO: The Ultraviolet filters are a new technology used to remove substantial amount of microbes from the air. The filter kills the bacterial pollutants in the air with ultraviolet light that incinerates the bacteria passing through it. This filter focuses on helping people who suffer from asthma, lung diseases and allergies.
Electro Static Precipitator: The ESP filter helps in removing fine particles like dust and smoke. It works by forcing the dirty gas pass through two electrodes where the first electrode is charged to a negative voltage and the second electrode is charged to a positive voltage. As the dust particles move through the first electrode, they pick up a negative charge and then they move towards the positive charged electrode. Since unlike charges attract each other, the dust and soot particles stick to the positive electrode.