Just as air is essential to life, pure air is vital to health, longevity and quality of life. Harmful air is a danger to families, employees and communities. Finding the source of contaminants in the air, measuring the quantity of pollutants, and using advanced technology to remedy the issue are necessary first steps in ensuring your health and the health of your colleagues, friends and loved ones.
Poor air quality has an economic price, as well. In Canada the annual cost is estimated to be at least $120 billion. That does not count the human cost, which can range from development of chronic medical issues to long-term hospitalization, and worse.
A major study published in Current Opinion in Psychology illustrates the far-reaching effects of unhealthy air on people and populations. Massachusetts Institute of Technology assistant professor Jackson Lu and his team found significant psychological and cognitive costs resulting from airborne contaminants.
MIT reports: “Across the board, air pollution — a mixture of particulate matter, metals, and other gases and compounds — causes decreases in happiness and increases in depression. … Air pollution is also associated with elevated anxiety and increased mental disorders. … [It] may be also a risk factor for substance abuse, self-harming behaviors, and suicide. …
“Air pollution harms cognitive functioning across all life stages, from prenatal development, to childhood, to young adulthood, and even into old age. … Research has shown that people living in places with excessive amounts of PM2.5 — a microscopic pollutant commonly caused by burning from power plants, car exhaust, and wildfires — have a heightened risk for dementia by 92%.”
In most cases, these hazards are as invisible as air itself. Unseen chemicals, microbes, spores, and a variety of carcinogenic substances can be carried by currents from outdoors or generated from synthetic substances and other indoor sources. Many of the riskiest particles are odorless, leaving no clue to the magnitude of the danger. By the time symptoms appear — headaches, diminished cognitive performance, respiratory issues — significant damage may have been done.
That is why I established Hamza Mbareche Consulting, a service that focuses my extensive experience in airborne microorganisms, the microbiome and genomics on the air in your residential or office environment.
As a skilled air quality investigator, I have helped schools, hospitals, nursing homes, businesses and homeowners discover air quality issues and effectively address them. Drawing upon my depth of experience, I assess the air and create detailed plans of action that will improve air quality and eliminate risks.
I also provide training and workshops for air sampling, sample processing, data analysis (microbiome, bioinformatics and statistics), and results interpretation.
My approach to investigating occupational exposure uses state-of-the-art technologies, industry best practices and is guided by the latest research in bioaerosols, the aerobiome, whole-genome sequencing of pathogens and related fields. If there is a danger, I will find it. If there are risks, I will mitigate them. For every issue, I will present a plan and a range of effective solutions.