Umidificadores domésticos: avaliação da eficácia e potencial de contaminação microbiana

Abstract

Low humidity results in higher air pollution which is responsible for significant mortality, especially from heart and lung disease. Direct health impacts of moisture include: worsening respiratory problems, respiratory, eye, dermatological allergies, asthma, headaches, upper airway dryness, leading to nasal bleeding, dry, irritated throat, feeling of sand in the eyes that they become hyperemia, skin dryness and fatigue. These health problems get worse when air humidity is not at the optimal level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) which should be around 40% to 60%. During this period that the humidity is not ideally, it is necessary to adopt some assistance measures in order to minimize health problems. This experimental study aims to elucidate which would be the recommended option to improve human well-being when using a humidifier, considering the presence of external factors that may or may not impair the effectiveness of the device. The study was conducted with temperature and humidity data loggers, Elitech brand, model RC4H, allowing the analysis of the variation in air humidity and temperature throughout the day. From these results, we can conclude that the humidifier is considered more efficient the shorter the distance from it, therefore, it is important to keep the humidifier close to its point of use.