By Dr. Christopher Joseph Harkins of JamesPolkMemorialHospital
Despite the overall success of the Clean Air Act of 1990, polluted air still plagues cities across America. Even worse, Americans contract diseases such as asthma, asbestosis, lung cancer, as well as other life-threatening lung diseases by inhaling contaminated air. Often, these contaminants settle to the ground where they are easily carried from high-risk areas to everyday locales such as restaurants, shops and even homes. Fortunately, a remedy exists to alleviate this problem – clean room sticky mats.
Clean Room Sticky Mats are tacky mats that help remove dust and debris from contaminating any environment. Clean room mats capture impurities through a sticky, 1/8 inch thick, polyethylene surface. Hospitals and laboratories across Americaview these adhesive mats as an ideal solution for preventing pollutants from contaminating these sensitive environments. These mats help prevent unsanitary, unhealthy conditions in a multitude of settings. Furthermore, sticky mats mitigate the costs and labor of maintaining hygienic conditions. Hospitals and laboratories recognize these tacky mats not as an accessory, but as a low cost necessity.
Unfortunately, diseases caused by the inhalation of dust still affect miners, construction workers, farmers, carpenters, bakers, and textile workers. Occupational health diseases caused by dust inhalation are commonly grouped under the term, Pneumoconiosis. In Pneumoconiosis, the lungs become inflamed by dust particles. These inhaled air particles then become embedded in lung tissue, causing a wide array of diseases. Sometimes, depending upon the severity of the disease, a Pneumoconiosis infected worker can die.
For example, construction sites can function as hotspots for Pneumoconiosis outbreaks. The process of tearing down buildings to build new ones releases excessive quantities of dust and debris. In many old buildings, asbestos fibers lie hidden in walls and ceilings. Excavating such properties can cause workers to fall prey to asbestosis. Asbestosis causes shortness of breath and can lead to lung cancer.
Furthermore, asbestos fibers and other particles settle on the ground of construction sites. Thus, workers walk on the particles, where they become attached to the bottoms of shoes. Workers can then track these harmful substances beyond the construction sites. They can carry the substances into restaurants, stores, and even their homes. Thereby, they increase the risk of the people around them who never step foot on a construction site of becoming infected with lung diseases. The adhesive clean room mats would reduce this risk. When placed at the exits of construction sites, harmful particles would be removed from the soles of construction workers’ shoes. Lethal air particles would remain trapped at their source.
These clean room mats are more than just a risk-management solution; they can be a life-saver. Clearly, these sticky mats could alleviate working conditions in dusty work areas, which would then reduce the cases of Pneumoconiosis in workers. Although the concept of the Clean Room Sticky Mat seems simple, these clean room mats greatly mollify complex worker safety problems that hinder American businesses today from the mundane construction sites to the stringent conditions and restrictions of a clean room laboratory. Its far-reaching effects encourage employers to install them in their business. The solution, or prescription, if you will, is clear. The Clean Room Sticky Mat is the medicine that will heal American businesses and American workers for a cleaner, fresher future.
