The coronavirus epidemic has accelerated companies' awareness of the risks associated with indoor air pollution in the workplace, a previously confidential concern.

“The pandemic has opened this awareness to the invisible,” says Thierry Ricci, founder of NatéoSanté, an air purifier manufacturer created in 2009. “Until now, we never imagined how great the quality indoor air could have an impact on our health, ”he adds.

"Benchmarks"

“At the level of our member companies, we have encountered a lot of problems related to the quality of air at work” since 2020, confirms Jean-Mickaël Dupuy, specialist in the prevention of occupational risks at SEST (Service aux entreprises pour la santé au job). The coronavirus has played the role of revealing a problem that has been documented for a long time. Since 2001, an indoor air quality observatory has existed in France, and since 2004, ANSES has been developing “indoor air quality guide values” (VGAI).

About fifteen IAGVs - concentration thresholds in the air not to be exceeded - have thus been defined, for substances as diverse as ammonia, carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide.

Over the past ten years, the High Council for Public Health has also issued several “benchmarks” for a series of indoor air pollutants.

Late interest

But these measures are "partial", underlines Alban Gomet, Managing Director of Condair France, the French subsidiary of a Swiss group specializing in hygrometry, air humidity management. "Concretely, when the government says" we should measure "(the level of concentration of pollutants), it says" that would be good "", without injunctive aim, he adds. French companies are moreover interested later than their Nordic counterparts in the subject of air quality in the workplace. "In Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, we see that people are much more at the heart of companies' concerns, and in fact they are much more attached to the quality of indoor air", maintains Alban Gomet .

At the global level, "the first markets are the United States and China", adds Boris Bravard, sales engineer at Antibacteria, a manufacturer of air purifiers.

But in France, "extremely strong catch-ups" are at work on the subject, assures Thierry Ricci.

The stakes are commensurate with the health consequences caused by stale indoor air.

Asthma, respiratory allergies, irritation of the nose and respiratory tract: the list of pathologies listed on the website of the Ministry of Health is edifying.

Some substances can even have a carcinogenic effect.

"Pay the air"

Before founding NatéoSanté, "I had quite severe forms of asthma and allergies, I had to take treatments every day", testifies Thierry Ricci. So many symptoms that have by his own admission almost disappeared since he resorts to air purifiers. While coronaviruses are only one source of air pollution among many, covid has popularized these products among the general public. "We knew a progression before the covid, but frankly it was slow despite the energy expended," recognizes Thierry Ricci. “Since March 2020, we no longer need to explain. Today the term "air purifier" is a common name, "he argues.

As a selling point, the manufacturers put forward the elimination of more than 99% of the coronaviruses present in the air.

"But today in France, we are not yet completely ready to pay for air", tempers Boris Bravard.

The occupational health services also point out that when companies ask them about occupational health, it is in particular to find out about the real effectiveness of these devices.

Air purifiers "can reduce the concentration of viruses likely to be present in the air," admitted the National Research and Safety Institute in November 2020. "But they can in no way replace the contributions of 'outside air defined by the French Labor Code (…) and should therefore only be used as a complement to ventilation systems ”, warned the INRS.

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