The travel industry holds particular responsibility in keeping passengers and clients safe and healthy. With millions of people spending time at airports, in airplanes, on cruise ships, and in hotels on a daily basis, it can be all too easy for disease and other hazardous air particles to spread.
Custom air filters and HEPA filters are used by the travel industry around the world to ensure air is filtered properly and indoor air quality is kept high. There are many examples of situations where air filters have been neglected and disease is allowed to proliferate.
APC Filtration works with many companies involved in the travel and hospitality industries to provide custom air filters that keep travelers safe. Learn how some of the largest industries use (or neglect to use) robust air filters and how these make a difference on a global scale.
Air Filtration on Cruise Ships
Cruise ships have long been known for their poor indoor air quality. There is ample evidence of poor air quality in common areas and passenger rooms on cruise ships around the world. Air quality on the decks of cruise ships in this study was comparable to air quality in some of the most polluted cities in the world. Another study found that flu illnesses spread across 83% of passengers within the second week of their cruises.
More recently, we saw the rapid spread of COVID-19 on a Diamond Princess cruise line. The ship was quarantined when the virus was first detected onboard, and even with quarantining measures, 17% of people on board became infected with the coronavirus. Cruise ships continued to be a catalyst for the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, leading to questions about the filtration systems in place.
Most cruise ships are fitted with medium-strength air filters, capable of filtering out particles approximately 1000 nanometres in size. Many viruses are smaller than this and won’t be filtered out by these types of air filters. Even if passengers are isolated in their rooms, the air filtration system and air filters won’t filter out hazardous particles and they can get sick from these being in the air. Many cruise liners are beginning to upgrade to HEPA filtration systems as a way to protect passengers better.
Custom HEPA filters will have a massive impact on keeping passengers on cruise ships safe as well as contribute to reducing a cruise line’s overall impact on air quality. APC Filtration’s custom HEPA filters can be made with specifications to fit these newly design air filtration systems. Now more than ever, having these robust filters is key for preventing the spread of diseases and ebbing pandemics where we can.
Air Filtration in Planes
Robust air filtration is a priority on airplanes everywhere. Because it’s a closed environment, the spread of germs, pathogens, and other hazardous particles could be all too easy. A variety of pollutants, viruses, pollen, bacteria, and microscopic dust can contaminate cabin air and trigger irritants to humans such as a runny nose, watery eyes, or sneezing. In this enclosed environment, it’s important to have a robust and well-maintained air filtration system. A high-performance HEPA filtration system is needed to remove these hazardous particles from the air on airplanes.
Aircraft cabin air is just as clean as hospital air. In both cases, the air is cleaner than the air you’d usually breathe in a school, office, or restaurant. That’s because both hospitals and airplanes use the same air filtration technology. HEPA filters are regulated to trap at least 99.97 percent of particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter. This filtration is happening on a precise, microscopic scale to keep travelers safe.
Custom HEPA filters are a key part of what keeps travelers healthy on an airplane. Without them, viruses and bacteria would be in the air and illnesses would easily spread among passengers. HEPA filters are there to ensure that an entire plane full of passengers doesn’t need to contract the same illness through the air!
Air Filtration in Hotels
Air quality and air filters in hotels vary from place to place. Some hotels use robust air filtration and air purification systems, while others simply use medium-strength air filters. When it comes to indoor air quality, clients can tell when air filtration is neglected.
Because many hotel guests spend much of their time indoors, air filters must work particularly hard to filter out the indoor air pollutants. They must remove pollution, chemicals, gases, and other hazardous contaminants from hallways and common areas and prevent these from entering rooms. Mold and bacteria in ductwork behind walls need to be kept out of the air. Each space in a hotel will have unique air filtration requirements, from the rooms to the lobby, to rec rooms, to kitchens. These are just some of the challenges faced by hotel air filters!
Hotels can benefit from HEPA filters and carbon filters to prevent the spread of harmful air particles and odors from clients’ rooms. Custom HEPA filters and GAC (granular activated carbon) filters provide a noticeable difference in hotel room air quality. These air filters are particularly important for hotels in large, tourist-centric cities.
APC Filtration Custom Air Filters
APC Filtration has been providing custom air filters and HEPA filters to businesses involved in the travel industry for years. We know the importance of robust filtration in hospitality industries including airplanes, cruise ships, hotels, and everything else these industries touch.
To learn more about what APC Filtration does for businesses in the travel industry or to get a quote for a custom filter for your company, get in touch. We are always dedicated to protecting travelers and employees year-round so that when pandemics hit, like the recent COVID-19, travelers don’t have to question the safety of the air quality around them.
Learn more about custom HEPA filters in the aerospace industry here.
