Is Air Conditioning Bad for Your Health?
As the sun’s scorching embrace tightens its grip on the country, the collective hum of air conditioners fills the air, offering a refreshing sanctuary from the relentless heat
Yet amid the cool comfort, some health professionals seem concerned: Could air conditioners be bad for you?
AC’s Impact on Air Quality
There seems to be no consensus on the impact of air conditioning (AC) on indoor air quality, a basic component of good health. One study shows AC can improve cardiovascular health by enhancing air quality.
However, other research links AC to increased sick building syndrome (SBS), acute discomfort, and health issues such as headaches, nausea, and fatigue related to time spent in a building.
The spread of pollutants through AC filters is also a concern. But newer AC systems often have advanced air filters to reduce exposure to respiratory irritants.
A comprehensive analysis of 47 virus studies found modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can mitigate the transmission of viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
Still, some AC units may circulate indoor air contaminants like cleaning chemicals or fragrances from air fresheners, both of which can trigger asthma.
Ventilation is key for clean, quality air. Experts recommend AC with advanced filters to purify instead of just recirculating stale air. Dr. Amadea Angove, a licensed naturopathic physician, suggests using AC with air purifiers for optimal air quality.
The Double-Edged Sword of Artificial Cooling
Artificial cooling provides relief from excessive heat and safeguards against heat-related illnesses. But excessive use can impair natural immune responses.
Constant cold air from AC enables pathogens to thrive, Dr. Angove said. This causes what is known in traditional Chinese medicine as cold wind invasion (CWI). Described as an aversion to wind and chill, the condition causes symptoms like fever, aches, cough, and runny nose.
Historically, these symptoms appeared only in winter but now manifest in summer too with AC overuse. Proper ventilation mitigates this reaction, however, because it is cold air in conjunction with poor ventilation that may cause symptoms of CWI, Dr. Angove added.
AC also inhibits sweating. But lack of sweating hinders the body’s natural mechanisms for eliminating toxins. Additionally, research shows sweating has natural antimicrobial benefits. For these reasons, Dr. Angove recommends sweating a few times weekly.
Is AC Noise Harming Your Health?
Noise impacts health, according to research by Arline Bronzaft, a renowned noise expert who holds a doctorate in environmental psychology. “The way our bodies react to noise can cause an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, which may lead to physiological damage,” Ms. Bronzaft told The Epoch Times.
Modern technology and urbanization contribute to noise pollution.
Chronic noise forces the body to use extra energy to cope, impairing well-being, Ms. Bronzaft said. “Adapting to a situation is not advantageous for our health,” she added. “Instead, it will adversely affect the well-being of the body.”
Ms. Bronzaft said that it’s possible for air conditioning to contribute to noise pollution if the AC unit is excessively loud. However, given that we’re choosing this noise for greater comfort, it’s unlikely that noise from air conditioning will induce stress.
Still, she recommends quiet AC units to avoid adding noise. “It’s about making your home as peaceful as possible,” she added.
AC’s Undisputed Health Benefits
Despite its downsides, AC has health benefits. “We shouldn’t worry about air conditioning being a trojan horse to our health,” Dr. Angove said. AC’s health benefits include the following:
- Temperature regulation: Avoiding extreme heat can prevent heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke and dehydration.
AC averts an average of 190,000 heat-related deaths a year, according to International Energy Agency estimates. Heat strokes, which can have life-altering consequences, are almost entirely mitigated by AC’s heat-reducing effects. - Allergy control: Some modern air conditioning systems come with filters that can remove allergens, dust, and airborne particles, improving indoor air quality and reducing allergy symptoms.
- Humidity control: Air conditioning can help reduce indoor humidity levels, inhibiting the growth of mold and mildew, and helping people with respiratory conditions breathe easier.
- Improved sleep: A cooler indoor environment can contribute to better sleep quality, as excessively warm temperatures can disrupt sleep patterns.
However, if air conditioning systems are not adequately maintained, they can become breeding grounds for mold and bacteria.
See more here theepochtimes
Header image: ZME Science
Editor’s note: is it just coincidence these ‘concerns’ about air conditioning appear now, when climate alarmists say we should learn to live without them to help ‘save the planet’?
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Tom
| #
Health professionals? Medical experts? They do not exist. I would prefer no A/C but the same pollution could be assumed during the winter months when the heat is blowing. It really depends on the filtering system.
Reply
Carbon Bigfoot
| #
https://www.dirtyelectricity.org/dirty-electricity
Dirty electricity is a term coined by the electrical utility industry to describe electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by plugging incompatible electronics into the electric grid, or outlets in your home or at work. A series of health effects, associated with dirty electricity (power line EMI), has been recognized in several scientific studies.
Dirty electricity exists everywhere. Some levels of dirty electricity are found in almost every building. Wherever electronics like computers, battery chargers, Wi-Fi, TVs, game consoles, compact fluorescent lighting or solar panels operate the electrical circuits are likely radiating dirty electricity.
What Causes dirty electricity?
Dirty electricity is an erratic form of electromagnetic interference (EMI), which is generated by electronic devices, as they operate. The problem is that most modern electronics operate on direct current (DC) at around 12 volts, while electrical circuits convey electrical energy, using alternating current (AC) at 120, or 240 volts. Modern electronics convert the AC power to DC, and in so doing, create ‘dirty power’ in the form of electromagnetic interference. Imagine that crackly sound when AM/ FM radio is tuned between stations.
Electromagnetic interference circulates through a building’s electrical system and radiates into the environment through wiring, outlets, power strips, and electronics and efficiency lighting, contaminating the environment with electropollution. This becomes a form of man-made electromagnetic radiation that we have to adapt to in our environment.
The worse mistake as an HVAC designer was to put Mini-Splits AC in my house. The Fujitsu Compressor converts single phase to three phase and back to single phase to the air handlers generating huge Gram-Stetsor Units over 500-800. Healthy GSU is less than 50.
Reply
Howdy
| #
“caused by plugging incompatible electronics into the electric grid, or outlets in your home or at work.”
If I may, the above quote is complete nonsense. The majority of power supplies in use today are ‘switching’ devices, where the AC supply is converted to DC and ‘chopped up’ if you like, depending on the delivery requested by the connected load, so increasing efficiency. The switching is at radio frequencies.
Any such device has a mains filter built into it to reduce interference being injected into the mains.
No device of any repute should be causing interference to other devices on the line, and if such is happening, it’s filtering is suspect, more likely non-existent, to save cost. External filters will remedy the situation,
Reply
Carbon Bigfoot
| #
MORE EVIDENCE ON DIRTY ELECTRICITY AND ITS HEALTH EFFECTS:
https://www.shieldyourbody.com/dirty-electricity/
Reply
Howdy
| #
Like the plug-in energy savers, Just more of the same, it is notable that these devices for viewing ‘dirty electricity’ are over 100 dollars apiece. You can build a transient indicator display for peanuts. Don’t waste your time with this junk, because what is expected is that you will be worried by the readings and rush to buy the company’s filters, which, those type of filters off the shelf are also DIY fit, and cheap.
“Increasingly, the devices and appliances that we use and enjoy are not designed to operate from the standardized electricity that we receive from the grid. And so the electrical signals must be converted to some other form.”
They most certainly are, or you couldn’t use them safely could you? I know what the quote is trying to imply, but it’s nonsense. There will allways be a need to drop mains voltage to a lower level, and even the mains supply moves around of at up to 100s of Kilo volts for transmission, before being transformed down to more manageable levels as the span increases and loads need connecting, so the quote carries no weight.
‘Electrical signals’ indeed. I think not.
One of the most common sources of dirty electricity is anything with a motor, like a blender?
Hmm It is usual for small appliances like a blender to use a commutated motor because they are cheaply built, and low duty cycle, though it is also usual for such devices to include filtering at the motor itself.
What about a fridge pump? These are one of the biggest causes of line spikes in the home, and when these motors start and stop it can heard on audio amplifiers, yet the blender, not. Not all motors are the same.
There are regulations in law covering interference and emissions, but If you buy cut cost devices from questionable sources, perhaps they will be problematic due to cost cutting, poor design and all the rest of it. Knee jerk reactions will cost you at no benefit.
Finally, cars produce copious quantities of interference, and in the old days, the television picture would lose coherence when a vehicle passed the house that had non suppressed ignition system HT leads, despite the metal body providing a screening action against it. A mobile transmitter of some power.
Time has moved on.
I hear the odd pop or click now and then, all the devices I use have built in filtering, and I still add more to the cable because I’m paranoid about protection of my equipment from mains transients, I do not do It to “save my own skin”.
A link to an actual case, but not that it is a radio HAM, and they fight this as a matter of course due to the nature of the equipment. Note the remedy method.
Reply
Howdy
| #
but not that it is a radio HAM = but note that it is a radio HAM
Reply
Howdy
| #
Forgive me, I forgot the link: https://ka7oei.blogspot.com/2019/03/quieting-insanely-rfi-noisy-led.html
sunsettommy
| #
I stopped using Indoor AC about 11 years ago went to a swamp cooler which works well enough much easier maintenance and far cheaper to run.
Reply