Spring is a welcome change for most of us, but unfortunately it also begins the misery for most allergy sufferers. Sunshine, pleasant temperatures and flowering trees don't make up for breathing freely without sneezing, coughing and endless sniffling.

According to a new study by the Technical University of Munich and the Helmholtz Research Centre, inhaled pollen lowers our defences against viruses. Pollen interferes with our body's immune response to viruses in the respiratory tract. Of course, it is also possible to create a safe place for an allergy sufferer to breathe in healthy, clean and pollen-free air even on spring days. Measures such as sleeping with the window closed, ventilating only in the morning or immediately after rain, or eliminating carpets and curtains in the home are effective...

But even allergy sufferers can enjoy a good dose of fresh air without worry. The air in closed rooms is reliably cleaned by an ionization purifier BION Fit Spot. It works by ionising the air, just as it does in nature. During ionisation, oxygen molecules are charged, which then collect fine impurities from the air, including pollen, which then fall to the ground due to their increased weight, where they can be easily removed. The ions of the oxygen molecules also react with the humidity in the air to produce hydrogen peroxide, which also destroys the protein structures of moulds, viruses and bacteria, which then become harmless. Ionisers therefore not only help with pollen allergies, but also with mould and mite allergies.

IONISER BION FIT SPOT

• Suitable for smaller spaces
• 15 m² - 30 m², air flow
• 117 m³/hour. For larger spaces, the equipment can be combined and optimally positioned.
• We can also produce customized equipment to meet your exact needs.

In our communication, the concept of comfortable and safe indoor air regularly appears. However, we are quite often faced with the question of what to imagine under these terms and with what specific technologies or products to connect them.

If you are going to build or reconstruct your housing, for example, you will not be surprised by questions about the method of heating, cooling, questions about the heat pump, recuperation or the use of photovoltaics, etc. during planning with suppliers. The choice of these technologies, of which we mention only a few, has a great influence on how comfortable you will feel in your home. You usually won't recognize it a few days after moving in or completing the reconstruction. When you eventually find out in which corner of the household it drags, you will be disappointed with how much dust accumulates on the furniture in a week, and in the worst case, you will be frightened by places with damp walls, which over time can turn into mold. And one day, the amount on your annual energy bill will definitely not add to your good mood.

However, it may also be the case that you will enjoy going home from work, where the air conditioning is uncomfortably dragging on you all summer and you are still warm in winter. When someone asks you why, the first argument you don't think of is exhausting work and a demanding boss, but just the feeling that you are actually comfortable at home. You will realize that you are simply breathing well, that even if your relative gets sick with the virus, you did not catch it from him this time either, that you have not wiped the dust for a few weeks, but he is actually almost none. That the pollen allergy that bothers you outside will stop at home after some time. And although there is already several tropical nights with temperatures above 25 degrees, you have had a great night's sleep. On top of all this, as the icing on the cake, you will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of energy bill.

The good news is that you can significantly influence what the air will be like in your home. And we are here to transform your wishes and needs in this area into a concrete proposal and make it realized.

It is likely that covid is not the last pandemic that humanity has been forced to deal with. Not surprisingly, many scientific teams are currently focusing on indoor air quality issues – especially how to limit the spread of viruses in buildings. One of the fields through which the safety and quality of indoor air can be significantly influenced is construction.

The relationship between indoor air and the spread of infections is an area that research teams are currently intensively working on. Diseases associated with viruses and bacteria have in common that they spread mainly indoors. It is therefore related to buildings in many respects – what is important is how and in what quantities people move and behave here, how the indoor air circulates and how the buildings are designed from an architectural point of view. Airborne transmission of viruses has been a key factor in many previous epidemics – such as influenza, smallpox, and now COVID-19. We already know this, but this in itself does not simplify the search for ways to prevent such transmission or at least to eliminate it more fundamentally. Any change for the better in this direction is a huge benefit both in terms of protecting people's health and economically.

In recent years, we have seen that climate change is leading to increasingly extreme temperature fluctuations, which often occur unexpectedly fast. Such fluctuations also place new demands on existing ventilation, heating and cooling systems in buildings, as all these systems are interconnected with outdoor air.

When changing the concept of buildings, it is therefore necessary, on the one hand, to take into account the issue of climate change and epidemiological risks, but at the same time, on the other hand, to think about minimizing the consumption of energy and resources. So that it does not happen that the building will prevent the spread of infection but at the same time contribute to the further acceleration of climate change. Since our inception in 2008, we have built our business on a balance between an ecological and at the same time economical solution that is as safe as possible from a health point of view.

Will we learn?

Unfortunately, the current challenges in the form of the covid pandemic or climate change show that the areas are still not receiving the sufficient attention they deserve from developers and investors. We can see that buildings and indoor spaces are in most cases not able to offer a safe environment to their inhabitants in terms of indoor air quality, unfortunately despite the fact that suitable technologies have existed on the market for years. In addition, in view of the changes in the Earth's ecosystem, it is to be expected that we will also encounter new types of airborne diseases. The question is what other warnings do we need...

We at GeoCore are ready. Our technologies have ensured a safe and comfortable stay inside buildings for countless customers for years.

Healthy lifestyle is a term that affects us from many sides, all the ways in which it falls. Most of us associate it most quickly with healthy eating, regular exercise and sufficient rest. Adherence to the principles of a healthy lifestyle is most often driven by the vision of improving physical condition and the associated higher resistance to diseases. Nevertheless, the trend in our population is an ever-increasing number of people prone to various respiratory chronic diseases or allergy sufferers, often among those for whom a healthy lifestyle is not just a theoretical concept. Logically, the question must come, what are we doing wrong? Few people realize in this context that the air quality of the indoor environment in which we have been moving for a long time and which has a significant impact on our health could be to blame. But is it possible to improve the indoor air in your surroundings?

To begin with, let's explain the issue of air quality better. We asked doc. Dr. Ing. Zdeněk Pospíchal, a forensic expert and an experienced expert in the field of the environment and technical systems, for information.

Air is the most important component of the environment, because we need air permanently for life. The significance of its purity is more than obvious. This applies to both outdoor and indoor air, i.e. the air in our homes, means of transport and workplaces.

Various pollutants are contained in the air. Pollutants are more than 90 percent trapped in the nasal cavity. The organism reacts to them with a runny nose, in the worst case, inflammation of the upper respiratory tract occurs. The organism reacts differently to the inhalation of substances of a material nature according to their size. With particles over 10 micrometers in size, the organism copes better. They usually get caught in the upper respiratory tract and a person coughs them up, spruces them up or swallows them with saliva. In the stomach, possibly in the liver, they are subsequently eliminated.

Our health is worse affected by smaller particles, which are mainly part of airborne dust. It gets into the lower respiratory tract or penetrates into the alveoli, where it can cause long-term, often chronic diseases.

Long-term exposure to air pollution brings with it an increased mortality of the population living in cities from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. It is estimated that respiratory diseases are the causative agent of about 25 thousand of the total annual number of deaths. In direct connection is a shortening of life expectancy, the occurrence of chronic bronchitis, a decrease in lung function in children and adults. That is, a deterioration in the quality of life. There is increasing evidence of the effect of exposure to pollutants on type II diabetes.

Overview of particle size in air

If we look at the increased indoor air pollution, it is mainly caused by two main changes affecting the interiors of buildings. On the one hand, as a result of rising energy prices in the construction and operation of buildings, there is an effort to prevent heat loss by limiting natural ventilation through windows and thus by using air conditioning and controlled ventilation, the result of which is mostly the accumulation of pollutants. At the same time, chemicals are increasingly used in buildings, in new construction materials, in furniture or in used chemical cleaning and cleaning products. At present, we stay indoors for up to 80 percent of the day, exposing our bodies to a burden that it cannot cope with. This fact is manifested by an increase in so-called civilization diseases. These are mainly allergies, asthma, respiratory diseases, vascular problems and cancer.

The open outdoor space is saturated with ionized air particles. However, while outside the ratio of negative and positive ions is basically balanced and therefore optimal for our organism, in a typical urban insufficiently ventilated apartment positive ions, which are independently unsuitable for the organism, predominate. For a better idea, it is possible to give an example where the air in the forest after a thunderstorm contains up to 500 thousand negative ions, while in a city apartment there will be only about 50 of them. Positive ions can enter the lungs at high concentrations, further into the blood and through it into the whole organism, where they can cause adverse reactions such as the release of serotonin and histamine. Increased serotonin levels can reduce lung capacity and the body's ability to absorb oxygen. With this condition comes health problems such as migraine, allergic reactions, excitability, sore throat, cough and others. An increase in the level of histamine can be manifested by heart pain, allergies, hay fever, nausea, insomnia.

Conceptual adjustment and overall improvement of the environment and thus the outdoor air is a long-term program and we as individuals do not influence it too much. However, the enclosed interior – i.e. the indoor air – can be significantly improved using technology almost immediately, which is confirmed by forensic expert Zdeňek Pospíchal. A number of his personal surveys prove that a suitable solution for improving the air in the interior are quality air purifiers that can help us get rid of health, especially respiratory problems, allergic reactions and fatigue.

As part of the surveys, GeoCore's ionization filterless purifiers were used, which were able to remove dust particles containing arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel, manganese or chromium from the indoor air (see box for more info). All these elements have one thing in common – and that is a negative effect on our health. If we look at other metals captured by a filterless ionization purifier – they are not evaluated in terms of health impact, as their impact is minimal. For example, we are talking about titanium, vanadium, iron, cobalt, zinc, selenium and copper.

The most important capability of the BION Fit Spot filterless ionization purifier is the equalization of the ratio of positive and negative ions in the air through the formation of negative ions. To give you a better idea, the predominance of positive ions in the room is caused by a computer, for example. In this case, BION Fit Spot will replenish the air with healthy negative ions and thus contribute to the creation of indoor air that is comparable in quality to the natural environment.

Ionization significantly improves air quality, is beneficial to health, eliminates the appearance of mold, viruses and bacteria, removes dust and other allergens from the air, thereby naturally purifying the air. You may be surprised to learn that it doesn't need any filters to do so. So how does it work? Ionized air binds solid particles from the air to each other and when passing through the purifier, these particles are firmly trapped on the slats of the purifier. And then they can be washed seamlessly once in a while. If you are wondering whether an air with a greater amount of negative ions is able to be perceived by a person, just remember how pleasant the outdoor air is after a thunderstorm. Other environments where you can find a large number of negative ions are salt caves or sea beaches.

It is clear that we must look at the issue of a healthy lifestyle holistically. That is, not only from the point of view of sufficient exercise and a balanced diet, but also the quality of the indoor air in which we spend the most time. The good news is that we are able to influence and improve all these areas individually. For some, strong will and perseverance are required, to increase the quality of indoor air, it is enough to purchase a suitable device that will do the necessary work for us. Over time, the investment will return richly, for example, in the form of improvements in long-term health problems, which we talked about above. And it's worth it.

Poor air is one of the problems we have to face every day. It's not just an outdoor environment – we often struggle with the air inside buildings, which is infested with dust, viruses and other microorganisms. Solution? Try the ionizers!

Flying dust particles, allergens, mold or odor – all this can be encountered every time we stay indoors in offices, shops or our own homes, where we spend around 75% of our time. Although air and small microorganisms cannot be captured with the naked eye, its action is more than palpable. Therefore, it is not surprising that people suffer from respiratory problems and allergies more than ever these days.

In case of these health problems, doctors often recommend us to stay in nature, for good reasons.   This harmony has a beneficial effect on a person physically and mentally, which we could definitely not say about the atmosphere in some interiors.

The air in our homes or other indoor spaces is disturbed for various reasons – the most common causes include air conditioning, TELEVISION, dust, cigarette smoke or computers. Even if you ventilate intensively or get air conditioning, you will not guarantee the required amount of ions in the air – air conditioning, on the contrary, completely deionizes the air.

If we were to divide pollution sources into categories, these would be:

• Chemical (cigarette smoke, solvents...)
• Physical (radiation, electromagnetic waves, noise...)
• Biological (viruses, fung, allergens, mites...)

It is more than obvious that these small particles and their action affect our physical health, which is usually one of the main impulses for the acquisition of air purification and ionization equipment. On the market today you can choose from a wide range of different ionizers that actively prevent pollution, ion imbalances and the spread of undesirable substances or odors.

Ionizers very often work on the principle of using ionic wind. In this case, the surrounding air is driven into an ionizer, which converts dust particles and other impurities and shoots back trillions of anions at the same time. Thanks to this, ionizers create an ideal environment for people who suffer from respiratory problems including asthma, allergies or hay fever. So it can be said that the more anions in the air, the less infested the air is.

Important for ionizers is a regulated amount of positive and negative ions so-called controlled quantity so that even the environment of your house or office is close to the state of air in nature. This basic principle plays a great role in the selection of ionizers that cheap technologies cannot replace.

We also offer ionizers that meet even the most demanding requirements for clean air. Ionizers restore ionic balance, remove odor while clearing air from harmful parts that can cause various allergies. We are not betting on commonly produced ionizers, but we are going to do the work of producing high-quality tailor-made ionizers that help our customers in the laboratory, medical and pharmaceutical environments on a daily basis. Due to our ecological philosophy, ionizers do not contain any chemical additives or unwanted UV radiation. You can also rely on completely inaudible operation without the risk of noise.

The truth is that these modern devices have a fairly wide field of application. In addition to being a suitable choice for homes, they can also be used in hotels and restaurants, business premises, offices, hospitals or even in the food industry, where ionization equipment can be delivered directly, for example, to cooling chambers, which will provide greater bacterial protection of stored goods while saving cooling energy during storage. In all cases, ionizers create a high-quality air in which it is possible to breathe well, work, live or even safely store food.

Due to the widespread action of harmful substances in the air, trying to ensure a high-quality indoor climate can be difficult. Even so, there are solutions that can cope with highly polluted spaces. Ionizers seem like a strategic step contributing to a more pleasant and healthy environment in which you will feel truly good.

Have you ever encountered the concept of air ionization? In our article, we will mention ionization especially in conjunction with air quality and the use of this technology in the interior. Whether it's your house, office space or the school your kids go to, we're everywhere in an environment that should absolutely meet hygiene requirements and contribute to mental well-being.  However, especially in the interior, air can contain particles that are very harmful to us. These pollut polluters may come from common equipment. E.g. from painting, floor coverings, surface treatment of furniture, heating systems, appliances or cleaning products.

We spend 90% of our time inside buildings. The quality of the air we breathe both at home or in the office or in other areas is important because it affects our health and the health of our loved ones. A recent survey by the EPA estimates that indoor air can be up to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air in major cities. This problem is the subject of increased attention from the WHO – the World Health Organization. Ionization technology mimics the natural way of air purification on the principle of electronic enrichment of air particles. It'll also clear the air after the storm. Our ionizers meet all the demanding requirements of our time. Not only do they ionize the air, but they also cleanse it and rid it of germs and allergy-inducing particles.

For example, we installed the mentioned ionization technology in the TV Nova office building in Prague 5. The active ionization system effectively acts on odics and harmful substances present in the air in the working environment. It contributes to the creation of an ion balance typical of the natural environment and improves the psychophysical well-being of people. Employees can thus work in an environment that has a positive effect not only on health, but also on the concentration and therefore performance of the employees themselves in companies. All this with maximum quiet in any environment. The technology is suitable not only for office space, but is also widely used, for example, in the food industry, health care, business and production halls, hotels, restaurants, sanitary areas or sports and recreational facilities.