Ventilation Overview

A common question for tanning technicians is how big of an area do you need to offer a spray tanning service? The simple answer would seem to be an area large enough so you, your client and all the equipment needed can fit comfortably, maybe a space needed for a shower or smaller bathroom. However, there is a major limiting factor many people don't think about when choosing their set-up area - ventilation. Enough space is needed to allow proper airflow so the work area is not stuffy from tanning mist and overspray. Proper ventilation is also a necessity for the health of you and your client, as DHA is only FDA approved for external application. It is essential to take every available measure possible to reduce the inhalation of spray mist.

The major factors affecting ventilation are air filtration, protective gear, equipment utilization, equipment settings, and spray technique.

Air Filtration

For adequate air filtration, an installed exhaust fan may suffice, but a portable air cleaner should seriously be considered as well. The two options discussed below are standard box fans utilizing filters and HEPA filter air cleaners.

Standard Extraction Fan

An improvised solution to air ventilation is to use a standard box fan somehow affixed to a standard furnace filter. While this usually works fine using a standard box fan and a 20" x 20" x 1" filter, the look can be unpolished and rather crude. The quality of the filter being used is also an important factor in the effectiveness of this ventilation system. The Tanning Store offers a Performance Air Cleaner and Extraction Fan, which is considered a commercial box fan but carries a more professional appearance having an incorporated filter. It has this built-in filter holder, includes an Arm & Hammer pleated filter and rates an 8 on the MERV rating scale (more on that below).

MERV Rating

MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value and measures how effective a mechanical filter removes particles of a given size. The MERV rating scale represents the worst case performance of a filter and ranges ratings from 1 to 16, a rating of 16 capturing the greatest number of particles.

MERV Rating	Efficiency Rating	Particle Size	Contaminant Example
1-4	>= 20%	10.0 microns	pollen, dust miets, coarse dust
5-8	20-35%	3.0-10 microns	mold spores, hair spray
9-12	40-75%	1.0-3.0 microns	fine dust, fumes
13-16	80-95%	.3-1.0 microns	bacteria, tobacco smoke
17-20	=< 95%	=< .3 microns	combustion smoke, free virus

Box fans are capable enough to filter a large room, so the additional restriction of a MERV higher than 8 is usually insignificant. We do not recommend the use of standard flat fiberglass furnace filters or reusable filters because of their characteristically low MERV rating. The label of being "electrostatic" is not in itself an indicator of how well it will perform at liquid filtration, but disposable electrostatic pleated filters are quite good for tanning purposes, having a rating of 11 on the MERV chart.

HEPA Filter Air Cleaners

HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Absorbing (or Arrestance) and these filters are designed to remove 99.7% or all airborne pollutants .3 microns or larger (this includes tobacco smoke). MERV values are not assigned to HEPA filters, although their performance is comparable with superior MERV-rated filters. If a HEPA filter is considered, we suggest a unit that utilizes a washable pre-filter and a carbon filter with the included HEPA filter. As the HEPA filter will have a higher cost than a standard box fan filter, this trio of filters working jointly will extend the life of the HEPA filter. The Tanning Store is still evaluating the desirability of HEPA filters as applied to spray tanning, and do not stock any for sale as of now. If you do decide to make use of a HEPA filter for your tanning, be aware of the Clean Air Delivery Rate.

CADR Rating

The CADR, or Clean Air Delivery Rate, is a measure of how well an air cleaner reduces pollutants. Box fan models do not quite this statistic because of the consistency in the vast quantity of air it moves, compared to a HEPA filter that is designed to target smaller pollutants and particles but work better in a smaller area. In general, box fan units work at the rate of speed it has been set to while HEPA filtration fans adjust speed according to the impurities sensed in the immediate air around the unit.

The AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers) seal lists 3 CADR numbers, usually printed on the box of the fan: one for tobacco smoke, one for pollen and one for dust. The higher these numbers, the quicker the unit filters the air. Also listed is a CADR seal indicating the area of space in which the filtration system will be effective, this number can also be roughly calculated:

CADR = Square Footage x 0.75

12'x 12'= 144 square feet

144 x 0.75 = 108

CADR Required = 108

Protective Gear

The single most important step that can be taken to ensure a safe ventilation requirement is to put to use an effective air cleaner. Apply what is needed from your budget first to a filtration unit and consider any special protective products to be optional. If you do decide to purchase protective accessories, options are pretty limited to masks and nose plugs. Even so, these simple items can be extremely beneficial especially to the technician who is routinely performing the tanning procedure while the client is only exposed to the spray briefly. It can make a professional environment awkward if the technician opts for protection but doesn't offer the client anything, so we recommend that the technician wear a mask and offer the customer the option of nose plugs.

Equipment Settings

Common sense here advises to follow the recommended settings for both the equipment and solution being used. But airbrush users may find these standard settings a bit tough to follow as the airbrush is a fairly low-pressure device that is not especially susceptible to overspraying. An equipment set-up can utilize as much as an 8 psi range while still producing an acceptable atomization of spray. At the top of this range, additional overspray is being produced but the spray pattern has not broken down to being a 'cloud' of tanning mist. At the bottom of this range, overspray is minimal but the spray pattern is only just above inadequate atomization. Optimal atomization for spray tanning is reached as a mutual relationship is found between application technique and an equipment psi setting.

HVLP Overspray Myth

The myth of HVLP not producing overspray could not be further from the truth. While HVLP systems do fairly well on "Material Transfer Rate" statistics, meaning that a high amount of solution is transferred to the intended object while minimizing wasted spray, the benchmark set for this test is only a 65% target rating. LVLP systems do not fair much better, as they have only slightly better ratings than HVLP units.

So, even in the ideal case, HVLP material transfer rates mean 25-35% of the spray is wasted. But these statistics also assume transfer to a large, flat surface and great coverage technique. HVLP spray tanning on a body with a hurried "2 Minute Tan" execution can calculate closer to only a 60% successful target mark. Many HVLP technicians carry the mentality of performing a speedy application at the expense of solution waste and final tan quality. This hurried technique requires up to an 8 inch spray pattern with fleeting passes across the body, creating an incredible 40% estimated amount of overspray.

There is also a trend among HVLP manufacturers to develop light, portable, cheap HVLP systems largely made of plastic. There are problems with this as water-based tanning solution does not spray well through off-the-shelf system configurations. We have yet to find a portable HVLP spray gun that can match a quality full-size system.

The HVLP market is not one completely useless for spray tanning as individual people find products indicative to their natural characteristics. Just keep in mind to always select the best equipment that you can, watch your pattern, technique and distance and be obsessed with the final product.

Air Quality

No matter what method of spray tanning is used, no matter what size room the set-up is in, it is incredibly important to your clients and yourself to employ the best ventilation units possible.