#Ambient air quality testing in Delhi

[chinueq]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[easyecho]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[hiteshrajpal]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[tcmdelhi]

Top 5 Used Luxury Cars Under ₹1 Crore in Delhi

1. Why Buy Used Luxury Cars in Delhi?

Delhi’s bustling auto market offers a goldmine for those looking to buy luxury without paying brand-new prices. From showroom models with slight usage to impeccably maintained private vehicles, you’ll find options galore. Think of it as buying a designer suit that’s been worn once—it still looks and feels premium, but the price tag won’t give you a heart attack.

2. Things to Check Before Buying a Pre Owned Luxury Car in Delhi

Before signing on the dotted line, here’s a quick checklist:

Service history: Look for a full-service record.

Accident and insurance records: Ensure the car hasn’t been in major accidents.

Ownership details: Prefer single-owner cars.

Mileage and condition: Always take a test drive.

Certified vs non-certified: Certified vehicles often come with warranties.

3. Top 5 Used Luxury Cars Under ₹1 Crore

We’ve researched and handpicked five of the best pre owned luxury cars in Delhi that offer top-notch value, performance, and looks.

4. BMW 5 Series:

Estimated Price Range: ₹50–₹65 lakhs

Why it’s great: The 5 Series is known for its sporty driving dynamics and business-class interiors. It’s perfect for daily commutes and weekend getaways.

Key Features:

Sleek design

iDrive infotainment

Luxurious cabin

This car is like wearing a tailored suit—sleek, elegant, and confidence-boosting. If you're looking for used BMW cars in Delhi that combine performance with luxury, the 5 Series is a top choice among urban professionals.

5. Mercedes-Benz E-Class:

Estimated Price Range: ₹55–₹70 lakhs

Why it’s great: Plush interiors and cloud-like ride quality make the E-Class a top contender.

Key Features:

Rear-seat comfort

Premium audio system

Ambient lighting

It’s the kind of car that makes you feel like royalty, even on Delhi’s chaotic roads. For those exploring used Mercedes cars in Delhi, the E-Class stands out as a perfect blend of elegance, comfort, and performance.

6. Audi A6:

Estimated Price Range: ₹50–₹60 lakhs

Why it’s great: The A6 combines elegant styling with tech-rich features.

Key Features:

Virtual cockpit

Quattro all-wheel drive

Sleek LED headlights

A tech-savvy luxury experience, ideal for modern professionals.

7. Land Rover Discovery Sport:

Estimated Price Range: ₹60–₹70 lakhs Why it’s great: The Discovery Sport offers a perfect mix of off-road capability and city comfort. Whether you’re cruising through Delhi’s streets or heading for a weekend escape, this SUV handles it all effortlessly.

Key Features:

All-wheel drive

Panoramic sunroof

Terrain Response system

If you’re considering used luxury cars in Delhi, the Discovery Sport is a great choice for those who want the toughness of an SUV without compromising on style and comfort. Among pre-owned luxury cars, Land Rover stands tall for its distinctive design and premium feel.

8. Volvo S90:

Estimated Price Range: ₹50–₹65 lakhs

Why it’s great: Volvo’s known for unmatched safety and minimalist luxury.

Key Features:

Pilot Assist (semi-autonomous driving)

Scandinavian design

Clean air technology

Perfect for families who want luxury with peace of mind.

9. Certified vs Non-Certified Used Cars: What’s Better?

Certified pre-owned cars come with warranty, inspection, and peace of mind. Non-certified may be cheaper but could have hidden issues. If you're new to buying used, always go certified.

10. Best Dealers to Buy Used Luxury Cars in Delhi

Some reliable names include:

The Car Mall

Autobest Emperio

Luxury Ride

Car Street India

These dealers offer transparency, warranties, and financing options.

11. How to Finance a Used Luxury Car in Delhi

Financing is easier than ever:

Check with banks or NBFCs

Compare interest rates

Look for pre-approved loans

Ask the dealer for in-house EMI plans

12. Maintenance Tips for Pre-Owned Luxury Cars

Stick to service schedules

Use authorised service centres

Don’t ignore dashboard warnings

Regularly check fluids and tyres

Treat your car like a prized possession—it will return the favor.

13. How to Negotiate a Better Deal on a Used Car

Don’t shy away from bargaining:

Know the market rate

Highlight wear and tear

Ask for free services or insurance

14. Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

Absolutely! If you’re smart about it, buying a pre owned luxury car in Delhi can be one of the best investments you make. You get all the luxury, style, and performance—without the massive price tag.

FAQs

1. Is it safe to buy used luxury cars in Delhi? Yes, especially if you go through certified dealers or platforms with good reviews.

2. What documents are required when buying a pre-owned luxury car? You’ll need RC transfer papers, insurance, invoice, and valid ID/address proof.

3. Which luxury car has the best resale value in India? Brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi typically retain good value.

4. Are loan options available for used luxury cars? Yes, many banks and NBFCs offer financing for used luxury cars at competitive rates.

5. Can I get warranty on used luxury cars? Yes, certified pre-owned cars often come with limited or extended warranties.

[fantasticobjectflower]

Hot Mix Plant Manufacturer in Delhi

Introduction: What is a Bitumen Sprayer?

A Bitumen Sprayer, also known as an asphalt distributor, is a road construction machine that uniformly sprays hot bitumen (asphalt) on the road surface before laying asphalt layers. It ensures proper binding between the surface and the layers, which is essential for the durability and strength of roads.

At S.K. Engineering, we manufacture high-performance, rugged, and operator-friendly Bitumen Sprayers for Indian road conditions and construction needs.

Why is a Bitumen Sprayer Important in Road Construction?

In any road construction project, surface preparation is key. Without a properly sprayed bitumen coat:

Asphalt layers won’t bond properly

The road may develop cracks or potholes

Lifespan and durability are compromised

That’s where our Bitumen Sprayers come in — ensuring uniform spraying, controlled pressure, and perfect temperature, every time.

Why Choose SK Engineering for Bitumen Sprayers?

Manufacturer’s Expertise

We are not traders — we are manufacturers. Every part is built and tested in-house.

Made in India, for Indian Roads

Rugged, reliable machines that perform on dusty highways, remote villages, and urban highways alike.

Trusted by Contractors

Over 500+ units deployed nationwide. Trusted by road contractors, PWDs, and NHAI vendors.

Customization Options

Tank capacity, burner system, and spray bar length can all be tailored to your needs.

Ready Stock + Quick Delivery

We ensure minimal wait time for urgent projects.

Applications of Bitumen Sprayer

Highway & Expressway construction

Village and rural road development (PMGSY projects)

Asphalt patchwork and surface dressing

Airport runways and taxiways

Industrial estate roads

Municipal road maintenance

Real-Life Use Case: Delhi-Meerut Expressway

Client: Highway Contractor Challenge: Required fast, uniform bitumen spraying over a 10 km stretch daily Solution: 6000-liter SK ENG Bitumen Sprayer with 4.5-meter spray bar Result:

Uniform coverage

30% faster prep time

Smooth asphalt application

Optional Add-Ons Available

HMI-based control system

GPS-based tracking for smart projects

Integrated heating and spraying system

Bitumen emulsion compatibility

Conclusion: Build Stronger Roads with S.K. Engineering’s Bitumen Sprayer

When it comes to road construction, quality bitumen application is non-negotiable. With S.K. Engineering’s Bitumen Sprayers, you get:

Reliable performance

Accurate spraying

Durable construction

Ease of maintenance

Whether you are a local contractor or handling a national highway project, our machines deliver consistency, speed, and savings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What is the ideal temperature for spraying bitumen?A: Bitumen should be sprayed at around 160°C to 180°C, depending on the grade and ambient conditions.

Q2: Can we use emulsion instead of bitumen?A: Yes, S.K. Engineering offers models compatible with bitumen emulsion for eco-friendly applications.

Q3: What type of fuel does the burner use?A: Diesel is commonly used for its easy availability and efficiency.

Q4: How do I clean the sprayer after use?A: Our machines include a pressure cleaning system using diesel or kerosene with air compressors.

Q5: Do you offer operator training?A: Yes! We offer on-site training and manuals with every purchase.

[hanshyundaiindelhi]

Discover the Dynamic Hyundai Venue: Style, Performance, and Price

The Hyundai Venue has established itself as a leader in the subcompact SUV segment, offering both functionality and sporty aesthetics. For urban adventurers and long-distance drivers alike, the Hyundai Venue combines sleek design, advanced technology, and robust performance. Let's delve into what makes this vehicle a standout choice, as well as the Hyundai Venue price range and features available.

Striking Exterior and Modern Design

The Hyundai Venue boasts a bold design language that captures attention with its cascading grille and unique red accents. Its eye-catching style is matched by practical elements, such as rugged side door cladding and a shark fin antenna, ideal for urban roads and outdoor adventures. For those who seek even more flair, the Venue N Line adds exclusive emblems, making every drive an exciting experience.

Comfortable and High-Tech Interior

Inside the Hyundai Venue, you’ll find a thoughtfully designed cabin that provides both comfort and cutting-edge technology. The all-black interior with brass-colored inserts enhances the sporty ambiance, complemented by ambient lighting and a high-quality infotainment system. The SUV also features wireless phone charging, a healthy air purifier, and rear AC vents, ensuring comfort on any journey. Additionally, the Venue's spacious interior includes convenient storage spaces like door map pockets and a glovebox cooling feature, making it both stylish and practical.

Performance and Engine Specifications

The Hyundai Venue caters to different preferences with its range of engine options:

Petrol Engine: Powered by a 1.2-liter Kappa Petrol engine, producing up to 83 horsepower, ideal for city driving.

Turbo Petrol Engine: The 1.0-liter Turbo GDi Petrol engine delivers 120 horsepower, available with both 6-speed manual and 7-speed DCT transmission for a more dynamic drive.

Diesel Engine: For diesel enthusiasts, the 1.5-liter CRDi engine delivers 116 horsepower, making it perfect for those who value fuel efficiency and power.

These engine options give drivers flexibility, ensuring a smooth, responsive driving experience tailored to their needs.

Hyundai Venue Price Range and Variants

When it comes to Hyundai Venue price, the range offers affordability for diverse budgets. Here’s a snapshot of the price variations based on engine types and trims:

Petrol Variants: Starting from ₹7.94 lakh (Ex-Showroom Price).

Turbo Petrol Variants: The high-performance turbo petrol starts from ₹9.99 lakh, going up to ₹13.48 lakh for the top-end dual-tone model.

Diesel Variants: Diesel options are priced from ₹10.70 lakh and can go up to ₹13.43 lakh for the top-end variant.

For more details on the Hyundai Venue on-road price in Delhi, Hans Hyundai Showroom offers personalized assistance, ensuring that you find a model and variant that suits your lifestyle and budget.

Highlights of Hyundai Venue Features

Some key features make the Hyundai Venue an excellent choice for city driving and long journeys:

Safety: With advanced safety systems like Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Brake Assist, and Hill Assist Control, Hyundai Venue ensures a secure drive.

Comfort and Convenience: Features like a remote engine start, drive mode selection, and a power driver seat enhance driving comfort.

Technology: The Venue includes a high-quality infotainment system and wireless phone charging for tech-savvy drivers.

Book a Test Drive at Hans Hyundai Showroom

The Hans Hyundai Showroom in Delhi showcases the latest Hyundai models, including the Hyundai Venue. With expert staff ready to assist, you can explore the range, learn more about the Hyundai Venue price, and take a test drive to experience its capabilities firsthand.

Visit Hans Hyundai today to see the Hyundai Venue and its exciting features, and find the perfect variant to complement your lifestyle.

[kdmglobal]

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Equipment in Delhi

At KDM Global, we go above and beyond to give our clients the finest possible service. We have adhered to our values and beliefs that "clients come first" along our path to become one of the leading brands of environmental testing solutions. From being a manufacturer and supplier to becoming a solution provider, our client-centric value is evolving. Our passion for excellence has propelled us to achieve unsurpassed quality while providing faultless after-sale services. We have established a reputation as Bangalore, India's only environmental test chambers firm that replies to customer concerns within 24 hours thanks to our assistance and services.

Since we get along well with our suppliers, we never run out of the raw materials needed to make the lab equipment and instruments we sell. We make use of aluminum, borosilicate glass, stainless steel, mild steel, teflon, and quartz glass. Because of our world-class infrastructure, which is equipped with cutting-edge technology, and our skilled staff of technocrats and engineers, we are able to offer the largest selection of laboratory and scientific instruments. Our cutting-edge equipment guarantees that our customers will receive personalized items.

Describe the ambient air quality.

The definition of ambient air quality is the standard of the air both indoors and occasionally outside. Standards for ambient air quality set upper limits on pollutant concentrations for the protection of people, the environment, and other living things. Because there is no single agreed-upon definition of standards, different organisations frequently adopt different standards. Monitoring the ambient air quality is sometimes known as outdoor air quality testing.

How can you measure the air quality outside?

There are numerous different ways to measure ambient air quality, including silica gel active sampling, passive monitoring, handheld devices, big volume samplers, continuous monitoring, and passive monitoring. The results are then transformed into an Air Quality Index, or grading system, to make them easier for regular people to grasp.

OUR VALUES

owe are completely aware of the difficulties that our customers confront, and as the market's leading provider of cutting-edge technology, we are able to produce items of the highest calibre for the most demanding uses. By conquering obstacles and identifying market-driven solutions with them, our knowledge helps our clients even more.

o Our results-driven methodology has helped our clients adjust their business plan to achieve both internal and external objectives. An increasing proportion of customers are now slipping into the delicious category of contentment as a result of our win-win strategy. It has also benefited in the development of teamwork among the employees of our organisation, allowing them to concentrate on the current task and provide value to the clients.

The foundation of a company's existence is integrity. One of the ethos, it is thought to be the most crucial. Every person at KDM Global is held to a high standard of integrity in their work.

O We work hard to provide a setting that develops long-term loyalty among our personnel and provides them with possibilities for professional development in order to fulfil the shifting needs of our market.

Environmental assessments must include monitoring the quality of the outside air. Effective air monitoring aids in the creation of a successful action plan to reduce air pollution. The Continuous Ambient Air Quality Management System (CAAQMS), which is often employed for ambient air monitoring, is an elaborate and pricey setup. But in addition to being extremely effective, our device is also reasonably priced and small.

For more  details contact us:

Email : saleskdmglobal@gmail.com

Website:https://kdmglobal.business.site , https://sites.google.com/view/kdmglobal/home

Contact :8218470498

[particlecounting]

Does AC Bring in PM2.5 air pollution?

It’s that time of year when Beijing is starting to sizzle, if this person roasting fish on her car is any indication. We’ve just turned our air conditioner on, and then we wonder: does our AC suck in air pollution?

    Although we’re roasting, air pollution doesn’t take a break during summer months:

    It’s not airpocalypse levels, but the buildings nearby are starting to look fuzzy.

    That made me wonder. If I turn on the air conditioner, is that going to bring in dirty outdoor air pollution?

    A question that I get asked often (and that I have always wondered about) is whether my wall-mounted air conditioner is sucking in dirty, polluted air from outside. If so, it’d be safer not to use it, especially on really polluted days.

  My short answer is no. To explain why, I’ve got three points of evidence:

  #1 Tests of the air coming out of the air conditioner

  I’ve held my particle counter up into the air coming out of my AC unit, and it’s no different from the ambient room air (See a live test here). I’ve also compared that air to outside air on very dirty days, and the air coming out of the AC is nowhere near as dirty as outside air.

      (I did this test when I had just turned on my AC. If the AC were bringing in dirty air and I were to test the exhaust after I had been running the AC for a long time, then my whole room would be dirty, not just the exhaust.)

  #2 Tests of the ambient room air before and after turning the AC on

  In each test, before starting, I closed my windows and turned off my AC. I ran my particle counter for 30 minutes to get a baseline reading of indoor air pollution levels. Then I turned on the AC for 30 minutes.

  Results? Air conditioners make basically no difference to indoor air pollution levels.

  Here’s what happened to indoor air pollution levels in one test after turning the AC on:

    Here I’m comparing the pollution numbers just before I turned the AC on and 30 minutes later. As you can see, the AC has basically no effect on indoor air pollution levels. If anything, the larger 2.5 micron particle levels reduce slightly. My guess is this is because the coarse pre-filter in the AC unit captures up some large particles.

  And here is the average effect of my AC on indoor air pollution levels over 7 different tests in my bedroom.

    #3 How air conditioners work

  Regular wall-mounted air conditioners in China and India do have a unit outside connected with tubes to the inside, but that tube is not bringing in outside dirty air. It’s circulating coolant.

  So where does the air it’s blowing come from? If you look around your air conditioner, you’ll probably discover that it works like mine: it brings air from the top, runs it over the cooling coils, and blows it out the front. It’s recycling indoor air, not bringing in outdoor air.

    What if I have a central air system – does that bring in outdoor air pollution?

  If you’re in a room with a central air system, things get trickier. You’ll have to do some research of your building to find out what air is coming out of those vents.

    Some systems bring in a lot of outdoor air. Some bring in none. Some systems filter that air. Some don’t.

  Here’s how you can get to the bottom of it:

1. Check out the system (if you can). Does it have filters? Does it have an outdoor air intake?

2. Ask the management (if they even know!).

3. Test the air coming out. Here’s how I’d recommend doing it.

If you don’t have a particle counter and you’re based in Beijing or Delhi, Smart Air can provide you with an indoor air quality audit to test your central air system, or to just test for general particulate air pollution and gas pollutants. 

Schedule your own indoor air quality test here!

    Open Data – AC air pollution data

  I made the original test data available for fellow nerds here.

Caveat about me: I’m not an expert in air pollution. I’m a social psychologist.

But living through Beijing’s pollution got my nerd spirit running about air quality, and I soon got into making low-cost DIY purifiers and started a social enterprise (Smart Air) to help get low-cost purifiers to more air-breathers. With the help of dedicated nerds and volunteers, Smart Air ships simple, no-bull purifiers to air-breathers in India, China, Mongolia, and the Philippines.

[deutschemotoren-blog]

Get to know more about the BMW X5  Price New Delhi

The all-new BMW X5 is specially designed to let the user experience comfort and ease all the time. The safety standards for the vehicle are quite high as the outside exterior is shaped with magnificent dimensions that will make individuals have the best view of the city and beyond. The BMW X5 is incorporated with the latest technologies around safety and grandeur.

The dynamics of comfort and grandeur BMW X5  is fused with the light touch of the accelerator pedal and with every gear change there is an optional 8-speed sport automatic transmission which further offers efficiency, maximum vehicle dynamics, and utmost driving pleasure to the users. Used BMW X5 New Delhi includes similar features of comfort and safety.

Know more about the fuel consumption in the vehicle

When we talk about the fuel consumption the performance data for the same are measured during the emission test is done under controlled conditions of the environment as well as the driving cycle. Also, the models, equipment’s and possible vehicle configurations are mentioned in the brochure that comes along with the vehicle, which the user can refer to anytime. 

Experience the comfortable seats of the BMW X5 To add on, the comfort seats of BMW X5  are made of high-quality leather which offers both comfort and style. The comfortable seats are electrically adjusted that allows a perfect seating position. BMW X5 also encompasses ambient light contour in the front and rear doors.

 BMW X5; An epitome of Luxury BMW X5 without a doubt is an epitome of luxury. The automatic air conditioning incorporated in the vehicle with 4 control zone provides the enthusiasts a climate of comfort, for the drive, and ones sitting beside the driver as well as for the right and left rear passengers. The BMW X5 price New Delhi starts at Rs 32.2 lakh onwards.

Know more about BMW Deutsche Motoren BMW Deutsche Motoren believes in the highest level of customer satisfaction that is measured by the customer satisfaction index. To add on, BMW Deutsche Motoren currently offers its services to over 7000 members and comprises a team of experienced consultants who go out of their way to help the prospective members associated with BMW Deutsche Motoren. In a nutshell, BMW Deutsche Motoren firmly believes that the only way to reach excellence is to never stop and keep going to explore new arenas and never stop reinventing. This is how the new luxury is born.

[ezra0204]

Hotel room and kitchen hygiene essentials you should know about

A clean and hygienic hotel can turn an average stay experience for a guest into a luxurious one. While lavish and well-appointed amenities and a cosy bed is what a guest may look forward to during their stay, cleanliness and sanitation still ranks top on their priority list.

Clean and ambient rooms can help hotels to double their ROIs whereas unclean rooms, unhygienic food handling and poor facilities can impact customer loyalty. Not only are guest less likely to return, there is also a real possibility of a disease outbreak. Thus, it becomes essential to constantly monitor hygiene practices adopted by hotels, especially in the key revenue-driving segments, i.e. rooms and kitchens, owing to their high operational and commercial value.

Market leaders and industry experts share their insight on the practices that have a major impact on a hotel’s hygiene standards.

Waste management

Managing the waste effectively plays a crucial role in maintaining a hotel’s hygiene as well as in saving costs. “The solid waste at Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty is segregated in three bins, which are colour coded. Green bins are used for biodegradable waste, whereas blue is used to collect paper and plastic and red is used for glass bottles and tins," says Grand Hyatt, Kochi Bolgatty's hygiene manager Shalini Jain.

“Segregation starts from the kitchen and when the bins are hal-full, theyare carried to the garbage area and put in the chiller to prevent bacterial growth. The biodegradable waste is collected by the vendor for cattle feed. Besides, used oil is also collected from the kitchen and given to the soap industries on a monthly basis.

Waste water is used in the STP plant, for watering the plant in the garden  and in the cooling tower.”  At Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi  Okhla, the wet and dry garbage are segregated separately. “The wet garbage (waste of vegetables etc) is used in biogas plants, whereas the dry garbage is collected at the garbage room and then handed over to an authorised outside vendor," says its room division manager, Payal Mehta.

The waste generated at Novotel Goa Dona Sylvia is used in the generation of compost of around 100kg every day as well as in the hotel’s organic vegetable garden. The compost made out of the  waste is stored efficiently and is ready to use in a week’s time. At the sewage water treatment plant, the waste water is treated and used for gardening of the entire resort, which is spread across 20 acres.

Cleaning procedures and schedules

Whether it is within rooms and plush suites or in a busy kitchen, a well-charted-out sanitation plan can work wonders for a hotel’s  ambience. It also ensures that these spaces are cleaned at regular  intervals, thereby reducing the risk of bacteria formation.

“It is not easy for a housekeeper or a kitchen steward to maintain  the busier areas. A proper schedule helps to instill discipline,” says Bhushan Shetye, Executive Housekeeper, Novotel Goa Dona Sylvia. “it is important for every associate to have a proper work flow, with the timings charted out. The person in charge should do a thorough cleaning while the area is not busy and maintain it throughout the day.”

Most hotels have a set structure and schedule that is followed to ensure none of the areas are ignored or missed. Sai Khavle, Executive Housekeeper, Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport says, “As a practice, we have regular inspection of rooms that includes a checklist, daily deep cleaning cycle, and mystery audits to ascertain process compliance as part of the hygiene and cleanliness process within hotel rooms. Each guest room is scanned and inspected.

Regular pest inspection and treatments are conducted every month to avoid bugs in bed. The staff makes sure that the hotel is clean and sanitised at all times, and the schedules are in place and being followed.” Jain reports that the cleaning schedule for rooms and the kitchen has been divided into daily and weekly ones. The weekly schedule involves deep cleaning of these spaces. Detailed hygiene plans with  checklists and visual reinforcements help to maintain the hotel.

Apart from cleaning schedules, a quick clean-up of the kitchen and the restaurants should be conducted. “The spills, crumbs and the mess from  the stove, floors, table and counters should be cleaned immediately and sanitised. Special care should be taken when the spills involve raw meat; a disinfecting spray should be used on priority to prevent the spread of bacteria. The liquid spills on the floor should be addressed first, especially from the safety point of view, as a wet floor may cause accidents,” suggests Khavle.

She further adds that the dishes should be washed, dried and placed in a proper manner, in order to avoid their piling up in the sink, making the kitchen all the more messy. The leftover ingredients should be transferred to airtight containers and stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Handling the food right

Cleaning, hygiene and best sanitation practices are an integral part of every food handler’s job. It goes without saying that the highest standards of  hygiene and sanitation best practices should be followed in the F&B areas to prevent any cross-contamination and health hazards. “Measures such  as periodic checks, colour-coded practices, temperature logs, maintaining storage best practices as well as HACCAP standards are some of the best practices that should be followed in the food cooking and service areas,” highlights Shetye.

Besides, “while handling the food,” says Lakshmanan Ramanathan, General Manager, The Westin Chennai Velachery, “care should be taken that all food is date labelled. All chemicals should be stored away from the food processing areas. And most importantly,  the packaging of the product, its expiry date, temperature and weight as per the order should be checked by the chef in a timely manner,” adds Ramanathan.

As a precautionary measure, “we use nitrile gloves for ready-to-eat food, high-risk items, etc. We have  colour-coded equipment and tools for segregation. Separate rooms are allocated for seafood, meat, fruit and vegetable. Knee-operated hand-washing station is available in each area of the kitchen,” explains Jain.

Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla has enforced the ‘Glove Policy’ as a hygiene practice for the kitchen staff to eliminate contamination of food with bare hands, states Mehta. Different time schedules have been set for receiving food items such as vegetable and meat with a view to prevent contamination. A standardoperating- procedure (SOP) is set for food vehicles, which plays an important role in avoiding contaminations of the ingredients that is flown from far-flung places.

Hygiene rules for F&B spaces:

• Staff hygiene: Wearing proper clothing and footwear for food processing is the best way to not just maintain hygiene in the kitchens, but also convey an image of a spic-and-span space. Long nails are an ideal home for bacteria and need to be kept short. An alarm system should be placed in the kitchen areas to remind the team to wash hands on regular intervals. • Clean floors: Kitchen floors tend to get messy very quickly with dust, crumbs, food particles and other matter. Besides the daily sweeping schedule, Khavle suggests that the floor should be mopped with a proper floor cleaner or disinfectant every week.

Khavle also emphasises the use of the right type of solutions for different kinds of floorings. A carpet must be vacuumed and cleaned of stains every day and shampooed once a month. The marble surfaces should be dry and wet mopped by using a disinfectant, and polished once in three months.

At Crowne Plaza New Delhi Okhla, Mehta informs that they use Diversey’s R1 and R2 chemicals with chemical dilution dispenser, which help to eliminate the chance of improper dilution. “Besides, a professional vacuum cleaner having an airflow of 129cfm, with HEPA-certified exhaust filters, also ensures zero-dust flow back to the air and offers ideal suction cleaning of the surface.” A good  way to sanitise and clean the floor is “by using chlorine solution, especially in high-risk areas, says Jain. “This will help in removal of solid particles and debris.”

Disinfecting high-usage accessories

According to Jain, all touch-points like door handles, remote controls, light switches and headboards should be sanitised with 20 neutral sanitisers every day. In order to limit the spread of bacteria, Mehta says that high-usage items should be sanitised every day and wiped with proper disinfectant (Diversey R2) chemicals that possess cleaning and sanitising properties. A colour-coded microfiber duster should be used to avoid cross contamination. "Accessories such as remote controls should be  sanitised during every check out of guest rooms, whereas light switches should be sanitised during the dusting procedure,” states Ramanathan.

Segregating cleaning products

Labelling of each chemical is a must in the chemical room and also in  the kitchen areas for identification, states Jain. Further, she says, the training of the associates should be conducted on a regular basis and an in-hand demonstration of how to use the chemical effectively should be conveyed. For spotless and germ-free cleaning in the kitchen, Jain recommends the use of solid based chemicals that are free from phosphate and have a lower carbon footprint. In terms of chemical usage, Ramanathan suggests that its application should be based as per the intended surface to be cleaned. Also, the chemicals should be aptly measured and used as per the required area.

In-house hygiene labs

In order to maintain a high-level of quality in food and water, more hotels are now setting up their own hygiene labs. Hotels such as Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty, Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla and Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport boast in-house labs that test food and water samples.

At our hygiene lab, says Jain, “we conduct microbial testing of raw materials, finished products and water. Also, regular hand swab and equipment swab are done for checking and ensuring effective hygiene”. Apart from checking food and water quality, “TDS and hardness of water is also checked at our in-house lab at Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla”, says Mehta. As an everyday practice, the samples of food and water are tested prior to serving them to guests, adds Khavle.

Trending hygiene solutions

The world is grappling with the unique Coronavirus outbreak. Diversey, a market leader in providing cleaning and hygiene solutions, has launched its 'Infection Prevention' range catering to its hospitality customers, which includes Oxivir and Virex. It is designed for efficient sanitisation and disinfection. “In the personal hygiene segment, we have introduced a range for hand-hygiene called SoftCare,” says Aurodeepa Rath, Corporate Communication, Diversey India Hygiene Pvt. Ltd.

As far as laundry operations go, says Rath, we provide Clax solutions to hotels. Besides efficient washing, Clax Advanced, as a process, ensures a significant saving on energy as well as resources, offering an edge to the property in terms of its sustainability score. Clax Magic is a specialised kit that comes handy for fighting stains. For kitchens, Diversey has launched dishwashing tablets, called the Suma Dime. These tablets can be used on multiple surfaces and are phosphate-and-chlorine-free. Similarly, for pre-soaking application, Suma Carbon K21+ is suitable for soft metals/anodized surfaces.

For outdoor and common surfaces, Diversey launched SmartdoseTM last year, with its Taski range. The bottles come with an in-built pump that ensures an easy and accurate dispensing of chemicals. Ecolab, which is widely known for its hygiene solutions, has also launched several offerings catering to the hospitality segment. For instance, the flooring cleaning solutions by Ecolab has Neutral PH chemicals for sensitive surfaces such as marble and granite (natural stone), where acidic or alkaline chemicals cannot be used. The dosing system introduced by the brand helps in accurate dosing and dilution of cleaning chemicals for housekeeping and kitchen areas.

A key offering by the brand is a kitchen surface sanitizer, Oasis 146, which takes care of all the surfaces on which the food is actually cooked, and of the chopping boards and knives to avoid cross contamination. HK disinfectant cleaner, 20 Neutral, helps to disinfect all guest and staff areas in the hotel and is used across all touch-points to avoid contamination.

Maintenance of kitchen equipment

It is important to ensure that the tools and equipment used within food processing in hotels are sanitised. According to Sangeet Soni, Housekeeping manager, Hyatt Pune Kalyani Nagar, the use of metal detectable and food safety equipment in kitchens is a standard measure, which must be followed by food manufacturing industries to make sure there are no contaminants being brought into the space. Further, he says, a de-greasing compound should be sprayed on the surfaces of the commercial hood to break up the residue. If scraping is required, plastic scrapers and nylon sponges should be used to avoid damaging the surface of the hood.

“To maintain hygiene in the kitchen, equipment such as a blast chiller, chopping board sanitiser, UV knife sanitiser, multiple type of dishwashing machines, a steam cleaner, hot and cold holding and Alto sham should be used,” contends Jain.

Linen and mattresses

The furnishings and mattresses consists a lot more bacteria than visible to the naked eye. According to Mehta, “The room linen at Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla is washed every day after the departure of guests and on alternate days for stay-over guests. In order to remove stains and maintain the brightness of the linen, Hypo Magic (chlorine bleach) and Sonril (oxygen bleach) are used.

Besides, Clax 200 and Aligro are used for washing bed linen. Clax RR Sour is used as the final step of washing the linen. This ensures that no residue of chemicals remains in the linen whereas Clax Xtra soft is used in towels to ensure the softness of the towel.”

According to Khavle, “Linen should be washed every day. However, the furnishing should be washed once in a quarter. The chemicals used for linen at Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport are emulsifier, detergent, bleach and neutraliser, besides hot water that is above 75 degree Celsius. The mattresses are cleaned using a steam cleaner, which is more like a vacuum cleaner using a steam that not only pulls out the dust also helps to sanitise the mattress.”

Upholstered headboards are shampooed on a weekly basis at Novotel Goa Dona Sylvia. “The mattresses are checked regularly for any bedbugs or stains, and they are protected using the mattress protector. They are shampooed and cleaned using hot steam. Pillow covers are regularly changed and washed using low temperature Johnson Diversey chemical at 60 degree,” adds Shetye.

Failure to uphold hygiene practices in the hospitality industry can lead to bad reviews, damaged reputations, and a less-than-pleasant stay for guests. However, hotels need to look beyond the obvious areas to ensure effective waste management and cleaning procedures, particularly in the times of Coronavirus to avoid a health hazard.

https://www.hotelierindia.com/operations/10217-hotel-room-and-kitchen-hygiene-essentials-you-should-know-about    

[chinueq]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[easyecho]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[hiteshrajpal]

Air Test and Environmental Services Testing Laboratory – Equinox Labs

Get all Environmental Services- VOC Air Test, Indoor Air Quality from one of the leading Environmental Testing Laboratories

[inder244-blog]

List of surrogacy centre

Find the list of Best Surrogacy Centres in Indiain india which has high success rate in India CK Birla International Fertility Centre offers full scope of IVF cycle systems and is extraordinary compared to other IVF focus in Jaipur, Rajasthan with most astounding achievement rates. Other than IVF, the middle is joined forces with International Fertility Center and gives all fruitlessness treatment methods, for example, IUI, IVF, ICSI, Egg Donation and Surrogacy. AIFC joins wide involvement in IVF with front line innovation, cutting edge lab and experienced therapeutic staff. The most astounding pregnancy rate is the consequence of work done by the expert staff which includes IVF pros, embryologists, medical caretakers and different individuals done who work in throughout each and every day to give powerful medications. Our patients who look for IVF treatment in Jaipur can have each trial and each methodology performed in one spot, from standard arrangement of introductory overview to the last convention. Fertile Solutions IVF And Research Center (FSIVF) - Dev IVF(Kirti Nagar)is a Gynecology and Fertility Clinic which arranged in Geetanjali Enclave, New Delhi. It gives master benefits in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). There are different administrations that are given under ART treatment to the fruitless couples, for example, In-vitro Fertilization (IVF), Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), ICSI, TESA, Donor IVF Program, Hysteroscopy, Laparoscopy, and others. With powerful insides and high-advancements accessible, the facility keeps on giving consistent administrations to its patients. Fertile Solutions IVF And Research Center (FSIVF). primary point is tolerant fulfillment with great consideration. We give therapeutic help and enthusiastic help with great correspondence and expected time to the patient. We offer guidance and bolster all through pregnancy and after conveyance. We have group of specialists with refreshed information, great correspondence and magnificent usable expertise. Ferticity IVF Clinics Pvt. Ltd. has awesome framework. Emergency clinic is all around furnished with all advanced office to think about barrenness issue. Aveya IVF (A Unit of Oval Healthcare)is situated in Shiliguri and fills in as a standout amongst other IVF and Fertility Centers. They give medications to In-Vitro Fertilization, Blastocysts Culture and Transfer, Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy, and Laser Assisted Hatching. On the off chance that one is searching for a facility for Infertility and IVF treatment, at that point they should make a beeline for Aveya IVF and Surrogacy Center as they have the most elevated number of fruitful IVF and Surrogacy rates. The staff will control you in the issues of treatment as well as at passionate level as well. They comprehend the satisfaction of holding your own youngster in your arms and accept it as their very own duty to enable you to accomplish it. They clarify the treatment and the means engaged with it along these lines giving every one of the answers for the essential and propelled issues. The center has carried want to all the childless couples by giving them a straightforward treatment at a reasonable cost. Aarush IVF And Endoscopy Centre - Malad has following point that why this centre is best to choose 1.            Team of profoundly prepared specialists with 20 years of involvement in IVF, upheld by productive staff. Notwithstanding your circumstance, our barrenness experts will work intimately with you to build up a customized richness treatment plan. Our first kid from IVF origination is currently school going. 2.            IVF lab is spread more than 6000 sq.ft cover region with all offices under one rooftop like Consultation and assessment of both Husband and Wife, Ultrasonography, Hormone examination and other routine blood test, Endoscopic medical procedure for ART(hysteroscopy &laparoscopy), Pathology lab. 3.            Separate Andrology lab, IVF lab, Ovum get OT, Embryo move room and IUI space for better working and better result. 4.            Our IVF Laboratory is structured at standard with universal guidelines utilizing clean room innovation with S.S entryways, non-punctured aluminum roof, silver particle impregnated cladding sheet on the dividers and vinyl flooring. 5.            Ambient Air quality in the lab in kept up by HVAC framework utilizing extra VOC channels (ISO 5). This makes the IVF zone spotless and sterile enabling developing lives to develop to its maximum capacity which improves IVF achievement rates. 6.            Availability of different hatcheries for incipient organism culture in IVF lab to maintain a strategic distance from continuous opening and shutting of ways to decrease weight on creating developing lives. 7.            Facilities for chronicle and handing-off of all pictures of egg, sperm and developing life for better investigation and complete straightforwardness. 8.            Third gathering multiplication with decision of profile of benefactor egg or sperm with complete secrecy and complete bundle of surrogacy till conveyance. 9.            Most propelled diode laser framework "Saturn Active 5" with biopsy mode which enables incipient organism biopsy to be done consistently in this way improving the affectability of Preimplantation Genetic Testing: PGD/PGS. 10.          Our lab has the office of Laser Assisted Hatching which is utilized in cases with valuable cycle disappointment and progressed maternal age for better outcomes. 11.          Separate Endoscopy OT with a wide range of offices for Fertility Enhancing Endoscopic strategies with live hand-off. 12.          We are one of the pioneers in the utilization of Hysteromat E.A.S.I which makes Office Hysteroscopy an effortless, sheltered and speedy strategy. 13.          Multiple top of the line Color Doppler Sonography machine for exact evaluation of follicles and endometrium. 14.          Complete assessment of Male cooperate with development semen investigation, Sperm DNA fracture test and careful Sperm recovery. 15.          Low cost with quality treatment with incredible outcomes Find list of other Surrogacy centres in India For more information, call at :  +91 – 8929020600     Visit Website  -www.elawoman.com

[darshit1234-blog]

Can Houseplants Really Clean The World's Smoggiest City?

NEW DELHI—On the roof of an office building in India's capital, the world's smoggiest city, Kamal Meattle has a unique tactic for cleaning the New Delhi air quality : a greenhouse with 400 common plants, including mother-in-law's tongue.

Meattle, the CEO of Paharpur Business Center, has 800 other plants spread throughout its lower six floors, greening each room and hallway. Their job: remove soot and other chemicals from the often charcoal-colored outdoor air.

In India, where almost no one wears filter masks on the streets as many do in China, Meattle is seen as a radical. He says he's even been dubbed the Mad Hatter of Nehru Place, a high-tech hub that's home to his leafy building and an adjacent lot he converted from a slum into an oasis of 2,000 trees.

He uses rainwater collected in cisterns to spray the trees so they can grow faster and absorb more pollutants. He's urging India's new government to require rainwater harvesting and to paint roofs, and buses, white. And he's pushing to build one of the world's largest energy-efficient office parks, complete with greenhouses.

Meattle hardly seems a firebrand. A soft-spoken grandfather, he's a scion of India's elite who attended school with Rajiv Gandhi and later earned a chemical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He sees his efforts, touted in a 2009 TED talk that's attracted more than two million views, as common sense.

"Sustainability is good business, and energy efficiency is low-hanging fruit," says Meattle, whose 25-year-old building was India's first to earn the top rating (in 2010) for a retrofit from the U.S. Green Building Council. He says it uses one-fifth as much energy per square meter as the average office building in India. At least 10 percent of its energy savings is due to plants, which obviate the need to pump in ambient air.

His horticulture is also a practical nod to ancient tradition. "Why did Buddha sit under the peepul [or bodhi] tree?" he asks, adding that the sacred fig with heart-shaped leaves releases oxygen even at night, allowing those beneath a light sleep.

Good Business—and a Health Imperative

As Meattle tells it, he really had no choice but to try something new. "My doctors told me to leave" India in 1992, he says, citing his reduced lung capacity because of the city's air pollution. He decided to stay, seeking instead to solve a society-wide problem that's become increasingly dire. (See related story: "In Climate Talks, Spotlight Turns to India.")

"Delhi's unfit for living between October and March," Meattle says, noting how often its air pollution veers into the "very unhealthy" or even "hazardous" category. The U.S. Embassy, which posts its air quality data on outdoor monitors, has issued warnings against letting kids play outside.

Smog envelops the landmark India Gate in New Delhi, the world's smoggiest city.

Photograph by Altaf Qadri, AP

In fact, New Delhi's smog is now nearly three times worse than Beijing's, the World Health Organization reported in May, based on measurements of fine particulates, or PM 2.5. The WHO found that the city had the world's dirtiest air, and the cities ranking second through fourth are also in India. (See related story: "What Step Is Crucial in Fighting Cities' Air Pollution?")

India's indoor air pollution is even worse, exacerbated by the use of wood stoves and by chemical emissions from appliances. The WHO estimates it's India's second biggest killer, after high blood pressure, and contributes to 1.3 million annual deaths. (See related story: "WHO Report: Indoor Air Pollution Is Greatest Environmental Health Risk.")

India's press has only recently begun to focus on the issue, but the people are still largely in denial, says Barun Aggarwal, director of the Paharpur Business Center's Breathe Easy program and Meattle's son-in-law.

"We are Indians. We have iron lungs," Aggarwal says is a common attitude, adding that many have adopted Nietzsche's "what-doesn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger" mentality.

Meattle, after reviewing research by NASA and others, drew up a plan that focuses largely on three common houseplants because of their complementary abilities to detoxify indoor air and enrich it with oxygen: the areca palm, mother-in-law's tongue, and the money plant.

Before outside air is allowed indoors, his 50,000-square-foot facility uses a scrubber to wash it with water to reduce the levels of chemical compounds such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. The air then passes through his greenhouse to remove formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide and through a filter to remove bacteria. No smoking is allowed inside.

Since January 2013, Meattle's company has created plant-based air-filtering systems for more than 700 homes in India's capital. It's also working to clean the air inside the embassy schools of the United States and Germany.

But Can Plants Really Clean the Air?

"It's a phenomenon that's growing now," says Bill C. Wolverton, one of the original NASA researchers and author of the 2010 book Plants: Why You Can't Live Without Them. Wolverton has been working in Japan, where plants have been used to make 50 to 60 "ecological gardens" in hospitals. He also says there's budding interest in South Korea and China.

The Paharpur Business Center's greenhouse focuses largely on three plants: mother-in-law's tongue, the areca palm, and the money plant.

Photograph by Wendy Koch

NASA published several studies in the 1980′s showing interior plants could purify the air in sealed test chambers akin to a space station. It later tested the value of plants to both clean air and recycle waste in a tightly sealed building known as the Bio Home.

Subsequent studies have also suggested that plants could help clean indoor air. In 2009, via greenhouse tests, a Pennsylvania State University research team found plants could reduce indoor ozone, which can be emitted by copy machines and laser printers.

Not everyone is convinced. "I certainly would not rely on plants to clean indoor air...To get them to work, you'd need too many plants," says John Girman, former senior science adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor Air Division. He says a 1,500-square-foot house would need 680 plants to duplicate NASA-like benefits, and the result would be "an indoor jungle" with moisture problems.

Girman co-wrote a study criticizing research such as NASA's that tested plants only in sealed chambers, which don't replicate the actual conditions of buildings with ventilation systems that can bring in fresh outside air. He says increasing ventilation is far more effective than using plants to clean the air.

But what if the outdoor air is filthy? "I don't have a good solution for India," Girman says.

Meattle's building has been proved to alleviate health problems, according to a 2008 study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute and the Central Pollution Control Board. The study compared 94 nonsmokers working there with nonsmokers employed elsewhere in Delhi. It found the former had fewer cases of eye irritation, headaches, hypertension, and respiratory problems.

Another study raised questions. It said the building's indoor air quality is akin to that in the United States. "Given the extreme air pollution levels in the outdoor environment of New Delhi, this is an achievement," says the 2010 research co-authored by Joshua Apte, now an engineering professor at the University of Texas-Austin. It noted the "air-washer and filtration array" but said there's no "strong evidence" that the success is due to the greenery.

"We have an air treatment plant," Meattle says of his innovative combination of scrubbers, filters, and greenery. The result, he adds, is fewer employee sick days, greater productivity, and air as clean as that in Davos, Switzerland.

For more information and to prevent indoor air pollution in New Delhi you can check out this website www.airtestinginnewdelhi.com

[ntrending]

Air pollution might be the new lead

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/air-pollution-might-be-the-new-lead/

Air pollution might be the new lead

Sometimes air pollution is easy to see. It billows off the top of smoke stacks, and out the tailpipes of cars zooming down the highway. Misty smog hangs in the air in cities like Delhi, Beijing, and Los Angeles, fracturing sunlight into a muted haze.

Most of the time, though, dirty air just looks like air. About 92 percent of the world’s population, and more than half the people in the United States, live in areas with unhealthy air quality. The World Health Organization calls air pollution the world’s “largest single environmental health risk,” and it leads to the premature deaths of millions annually. It’s a major public health problem for reasons you might expect: breathing in dirty air isn’t good for your lungs, and the the connection between the lungs and the cardiovascular system means it puts pressure on your heart, too.

But it’s increasingly clear that the effects of air pollution aren’t constrained to body parts below the shoulders—they can hurt the brain in a whole host of ways, many of which researchers are still trying to understand. One major area of interest? The way exposure to polluted air can affect the cognitive development of babies and children. Researchers aren’t shocked to find that an environmental toxin could harm young brains, because they’ve seen it happen before.

“To me, air pollution is kind of the next lead, in a way,” says Deborah Cory-Slechta, a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester.

Lead was everywhere throughout the start of the 20th century, readily used to make vacuums and paint and included as an ingredient in gasoline. It was known to be toxic, and concern over its health effects spurred fights for regulation, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that researchers linked even low levels of lead exposure to an increased risk for cognitive and behavioral problems in children—just as scientists are starting to do for air pollution now.

The parallel isn’t exact, but like lead, air pollution also disproportionately affects low income and minority communities. Like lead, air pollution is easy to put into the environment, and much harder to take out. “The more I do in this area, the bigger the problem seems to me,” Cory-Slechta says.

Pollution on the brain

Cory-Slechta actually started out studying the effects of lead exposure, and she was skeptical when she first heard air pollution might pose similar dangers. But when a research group at her university, which was studying air pollution and lung development, asked if she was interested in taking a look at the brains of the mice used in their studies, she figured she might as well take a look.

She was shocked to find evidence of inflammation and damage in pretty much every area of the mouse brains. “And this was a full two months after the exposure to air pollution had ended,” Cory-Slechta says.

Living in areas with high air pollution has been linked to poorer memory, attention and vocabulary; to below-average performance on intelligence tests; and to delinquent behavior. Air pollution has also been implicated in developmental disorders ranging from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to autism spectrum disorders.

Animal studies, where researchers can more strictly control the pollution exposure, back up the results from those human reports. They show that air pollution causes changes in behavior in rodents, and changes in their brains, like imbalances in the levels of certain molecules, hyperactivity in brain regions, and damage to neurons—many of which correspond to the way neurodevelopmental diseases look in these animals. The widespread inflammation seen in mouse brains after air pollution exposure, like Cory-Slechta observed in her initial studies, can damage neurons, and, during development, prevent the brain from organizing itself properly.

Although the research isn’t far enough along to draw an explicit, causative link between air pollution and developmental changes in humans, there’s a strong association between the two, strengthened by the accompanying research on animals. “We have a pretty good correspondence between the epidemiology studies in humans and the animal studies,” Cory-Slechta says.

The particles in the air get into the body and into the brain through a few different pathways: they can pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream, where they can travel up to the brain directly, or cause changes in the body’s immune response that trigger damaging inflammation. There’s also only a thin barrier between the nasal cavity and the brain, and tiny particles of air pollution can pass directly through.

Still, there’s a lot we don’t know about the mechanisms behind the effects of air pollution. It’s a slurry of different types of particles, of different sizes and from different sources. Some of the largest are about a tenth of the width of a human hair—big, on a microscopic scale, but still small enough to travel into the lungs. Others, known as ultrafine particles, are on the nanoscale. Pollution is made of nitrogen dioxide and ozone, and it might also have microscopic pieces of metals like zinc, tin, or even lead. The composition can change neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and hour to hour.

“The toxicity is different depending on the particular soup that you’re in,” says Rosalind Wright, who studies environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai.

One of the main challenges faced by air pollution researchers, then, is untangling the types of particles that could be the most dangerous from those that might be more benign. “Any step in that direction, looking at some components versus others, is going to be valuable,” Wright says.

We also don’t know much about the windows during development when the effects of air pollution might have the greatest impact. Maternal exposure to air pollution can affect fetal development, for example, and exposure during infancy and the first few years of life can harm children as well. But it’s not clear when the most damage actually occurs. Then there’s the question of dosage. Air pollution shifts around, and exposure can spike when people enter different environments—like driving through a tunnel on the highway. The difference between that type of extreme, temporary exposure, and long term, ambient exposure, are still muddled, as well.

The Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, run through the National Institutes of Health, will hopefully produce new, robust data to help answer those questions, Wright says. The program aims to enroll 50,000 children and track, among other things, neurodevelopment and environmental exposures. “That initiative will take a big step forward in this area,” she says. “Hopefully, it will drive policy in the long run.”

Preventing damage

One thing we do know about air pollution is that there’s more of it in low income communities and in communities of color. Racial and ethnic minority children in the United States are more likely to attend schools in highly polluted areas, and across the world, low income areas have higher concentrations of air pollutants.

Racial and ethnic minority children, and children in low-income areas, may also be more strongly affected by the air pollution that they’re exposed to. That’s because dealing with social stressors, like food insecurity or institutionalized racism, might compound the effects of environmental stressors like air pollution on their neurological and cognitive development.

“Studies show that if you don’t have stress concurrently with air pollution, you won’t necessarily see strong effects,” Wright says. That means, she says, that tackling some of those social problems might be one way to mitigate the harmful effects of toxic air. “It’d be interventions short of saying, change the air.”

The same patterns hold true for lead exposure—which disproportionately affects minority and low income communities, and is exacerbated by stress. Similarly, an enriched, non-stressful environment, can protect against lead-driven damage.

Unlike lead, though, knocking out the root of the problem isn’t as simple as removing one ingredient from paint and gasoline (which is complicated enough, and the United States is still struggling to keep up).

The problem with air pollution, Wright says, is that it’s so ubiquitous. Air quality is improving across the United States, even while in poor cities around the world, pollution levels are going up. But we still don’t know how low pollution actually needs to be to stave off developmental effects, Wright says. “Even at the cutoff levels where we have regulations on the quality of air, it can still be toxic.”

The United States, under the Clean Air Act, also only measures certain types of particles found in air pollution—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, does not have standards for the levels of ultrafine particles, which may have their own unique host of health effects. Improvement on only the measures that we can see, Cory-Slechta says, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re making progress on all types of air pollution.

What’s more, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has taken steps to weaken or remove existing regulations around air pollution over the past year. Pruitt is also restructuring the way that the EPA uses scientific evidence to form policy—the agency will no longer consider research that was done with confidential data. A significant body of air pollution research uses medical records (which remain confidential under ethical guidelines) including studies on childhood development. That decision would help justify any EPA decisions to ease regulations on emissions from chemical plants or factories, and they would be able to disregard evidence showing that it harms kids.

Lead research bumped up against similar challenges from various industries that used the metal in their products, who fought against regulations and attempted to cast doubt on the scientific research.

Despite the challenges, the path forward in the fight against air pollution is made easier by the precedent set by lead.

“The struggle over lead was the poster child for these issues, and it broke down some barrier,” Cory-Slechta says. “At that point in time, early on, there was study after study just to try and get people to believe that lead exposure was associated with changes in IQ.” It’s common knowledge today, but when the research was ratcheting up in the 1990s, people were reluctant to acknowledge that it was a neurotoxin, she says.

“A lot of those fights got fought over lead,” Cory-Slechta says. “Now, when you say that there are behavioral effects of air pollution, no one questions it. So we’re able to move faster, and we’re a lot further along.”

Written By Nicole Wetsman