About Clean Air

Position Statement

Use of Melaklean will lead to decrease in indoor bio-burden to levels well below accepted action levels. Melaklean states that levels of mould below 150 colonies per 1000 Lt of air are needed to ensure adequate indoor air health. Levels of bacteria below 1000 are also desirable.

Melaklean will achieve both of these bio-burden levels with low level dosage of the air handling unit, and importantly will help keep the air handling unit from accumulating unsafe levels of bio-burden.

Users are recommended to still implement a regular policy for coil cleaning and duct work cleaning

There are over 900 research papers around the world recognizing that indoor air quality can be severely undermined by poor maintenance of the premise’s Air Handling Unit. This in conjunction with a unit (or no unit) which is not well suited or has not been well designed to give proper air flow and humidity control can lead to serious bio-burden build up. This in turn can be shown to lead to serious health effects in building occupants.

The implication is that proper maintenance of the air handling unit goes a long way towards achieving ideal levels of good indoor air quality.

Even a clean air conditioner will deliver several times the bioburden found in outside air. A small level of contamination depositing inside the workings of an air handling system can lead to serious levels of contamination when the conditions of moisture and food source are right.

Many studies show that lower and lower levels of mould contamination can lead to severe loss of health symptoms in building occupants. Melaklean’s own studies agree with some of the more severe reports found elsewhere.

These studies indicate that mould counts as low as 150 colonies per cubic meter of air have lead to discomfort and ill health to human occupants.

• Studies around the world show that normal outdoor air carries 50 to 600 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air.
• The same studies show a “clean” air conditioner delivers 1,000-2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air.
• When indoor air gets musty, or people start to show ill effects, the air conditioner usually delivers well above 2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air.

Australian Standards Reference:

SAA/SNZ HB32:1995
Contamination by fungi or bacteria can develop on wet surfaces. It has been suggested that an acceptable level of airborne viable micro-organisms in occupied spaces is around 500 to 1000 colony forming units per cubic metre. Levels of 3000, 5000 and 10 000 have been associated with hypersensitivity pneumonitis outbreaks and it is generally thought that a level of 1000 is sufficient to warrant investigation and improvement (which is not to say that the air is unsafe or hazardous—such assessments require the services of medical practitioners and epidemiologists).

It is Melaklean’s suggestion that it is adequate to refer the measurement of your indoor air to an approved Indoor Air Quality specialist or an approved microbiology laboratory.

Melaklean’s Surface test kit with colour change result indication.

To compare the Melaklean kit with the above guidelines one must test the required surface, a square or rectangle between 20 and 30 cm in dimension. This will generate the appropriate comparison test value.

Surface readings between 200 and 500 cfu/cm2 will generate an orange colour on the test kit because they translate to 104 and 105 ranges over the test surface described above.

But any darker yellow shade meaning approximately 1000 cfu to 10000 cfu cannot be ignored entirely and should prompt treatment of the air handling system and the indoor air space with a sanitizer like Melaklean’s products.

• Melaklean’s own results indicate that typical air for our Australian fresh air environments are between 30 and 500 cfu per meter cube. Therefore it is Melaklean’s recommendation that any reading above 500 indicates there is a build up in the indoor air space and treatment should be implemented.