With expanded natural and wellbeing concerns, indoor air quality has turned into a basic concentration across all ventures. Food processors and manufacturers, particularly those who deal with chemicals, operate heavy or high-tech machinery, or produce ready-to-eat foods, must take whatever steps are necessary to maintain clean air in their facilities. Better health among your employees will result in increased productivity and fewer sick days. Additionally, it ensures the cleanliness of products and plants. Even though these concerns regarding health and safety are of the utmost importance, many facilities do not yet have the ventilation systems that are required to supply clean, fresh air.
EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY
Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is a term that is frequently used when there is no other explanation for the health issues that a building’s occupants are experiencing.
Most of the time, problems with the heating, industrial air ventilation system ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are to blame for SBS. Other factors include the use of light industrial chemicals, outgassing of certain materials, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), inadequate fresh-air intake and filtration, improper ventilation of machine exhaust (ozone), and other contaminants.
People who work in the same building may have different symptoms, and symptoms frequently get better or go away completely when they leave the building and come back when they return. Extreme temperatures and heat exhaustion can also result from inadequate ventilation.
Sick Building Syndrome has the potential to reduce employee output and drive up healthcare costs. The World Green Building Council’s research found that numerous studies consistently found output reductions of up to 10% due to poor air quality. Similarly, tests conducted in the laboratory indicate that high CO2 levels can have a significant impact on decision-making abilities. Despite the widespread acceptance of 1000 parts per million (ppm) as safe, results showed 11 to 23% more poor judgment at 1000 ppm compared to 600 ppm.
Other studies cited by WGBC link improved ventilation to productivity gains of up to 11% and reductions of short-term sick leave of 35%. According to tests, the ideal ventilation rate is between 20 and 30 liters per second, which is significantly higher than the minimum requirements in the United States, which are between 8 and 10 liters per second.
Itemized examination via Carnegie Mellon found that normal ventilation or blended mode cooling could accomplish 0.8 to 1.3 percent wellbeing cost reserve funds, 3 to 18 percent efficiency gains, and 47 to 79 percent in central air energy reserve funds, for a typical profit from speculation of 120%. A comparable report assessed the worth of further developed ventilation to be $400 per representative each year.
SANITATION OF FOOD PROCESSING
Older plants, like many newer ones, frequently employ exhaust fans to assist in the removal of odors and other pollutants. However, inadequate intake of exhaust results in negative building air pressure. In this present circumstance, any time an entryway or window is opened air is sucked in, bringing water, dust, microbes, synthetics, bugs, form spores, smells and different impurities alongside it.
Because unfiltered air enters through any cracks or other openings in the plant’s envelope as well as through open doors and windows, food processors working in negative air pressure have no control over the contents of the indoor air. As a result, the plant, equipment, piping, and racking can hardly be cleaned or sanitized. A negative pneumatic stress space may likewise defile item, which can devastatingly affect creation, particularly where prepared to-eat food items are concerned.
By making positive-pressure, exceptionally sifted air zones inside a handling plant, a very much planned air conditioning framework can safeguard the office and the item from tainting at each period of the cycle. A person would feel air leaving the building whenever a door was opened in a positive pressure situation. Efforts to clean and sanitize will be aided by this because it will make dust collection systems function more effectively.
The integration of outside air is necessary to maintain the recommended positive pressure condition (10 percent above the HVAC system’s exhaust capacity). Of course, the air outside needs to be filtered, but the degree of filtration will vary depending on the product being processed. Air turnover, which removes steam, odors, and other airborne contaminants, will be generated when the intake and exhaust are balanced appropriately. While ready-to-eat food processing plants typically run 20 to 25 air turns per hour, some facilities only need six air turns per hour. An experienced contractor must design this kind of HVAC system to fit the facility and the process.