Have you ever considered indoor air quality when it comes to the health of your home? Many people wrongfully assume that bad air is only found outside, where pollution seems more evident. However; the truth is,
Indoor air quality is often much worse than outside air.
In fact, according to the EPA, indoor air pollutants can be 2 to 5 times higher than outdoor air pollutants.
Have you ever stopped to consider that the air inside your home might be doing a lot of damage to your health?
The dust in your home, fragrances, household chemicals, and other pollutants can ruin the air quality in your home considerably. When living indoors, you also have to worry about dust mites, pet dander, mold, and other pollutants.
While you might not know that the air quality in your home is polluted because you do not have any health symptoms such as allergies, fatigue or daily headaches, years of living under such conditions can take their toll.
The problem is made worse by the fact that some of these pathogens are odorless. You might only know you have a problem because you often deal with fatigue, digestive issues, and even sleepiness.
So, what can you do to easily improve indoor air quality and have a healthy home free of pollutants?
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How Can You Improve Indoor Air Quality?
Here are 6 simple and inexpensive suggestions that you can implement in your home to improve your indoor air quality.
1. Maintain Clean and Fresh Floors
Most dangerous pathogens settle on the floor, and leaving them there can pose a huge risk to those living in it. That is why you should get a vacuum with a HEPA filter so that it can get rid of some of these allergens from your house. Also, you should take measures to ensure that there is no pollen, dust mites and pet dander in your home. A door mat can also ensure that these pathogens are not moved from one room of the house to another. While keeping the floors clean, you should also do something about the walls, as they can have a lot of pollutants as well.
2. Keep Your Home Clean
Be sure to dust furniture and vacuum your floors at home on a regular basis. This can cut down on dust, mold spores, and animal dander.
Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter. HEPA, which stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air, “is a type of filter that can trap a large amount of very small particles that other vacuum cleaners would simply recirculate back into the air of your home.”
3. Keep Your Home Clean, But Not By Using Harmful Products
Maintaining a clean house will help make your indoor air quality better, but if you use commercial cleaning products with harmful chemicals, you may be defeating the purpose.
Many commercial cleaning products contain harmful chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These chemicals can be introduced into your indoor air when used.
When cleaning your home, make sure to use natural or DIY products which don’t jeopardize your air quality.
4. Maintain Optimal Humidity Levels
Humidity is just water, right?
So, why would humidity levels in your home matter? Because there are allergens such as dust mites and mold that love high levels of humidity. Therefore, you should keep the humidity in your home low, ideally between 30 and 50 percent.
An effective way of keeping humidity levels in your home under control is by using a dehumidifier. You can also:
- open the window when cooking
- avoid watering your house plants too much
- fix leaking pipes
5. Change HVAC Filters
HVAC filters can help ensure that dust and other airborne irritants get trapped instead of being recirculated throughout your home. In order to reduce indoor air pollution, it is important to change your filter every couple of months.
6. Don’t Allow Smoking in your Home
Secondhand smoke is a major indoor air pollutant. Cigarette smoke has more than 4000 chemicals in it, and children who are exposed to secondhand smoke suffer increased risks of ear and breathing issues.
The risk of cancer and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is also more likely when kids are exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke. Obviously, if you are a smoker, you would have to quit or make sure that you only smoke outside to keep these dangerous chemicals away from your home.
Making the Recommended Changes Will Help Improve Indoor Air Quality at Home
Indoor air quality can have a huge impact on your health and that of your family.
But while most people think that indoor air quality is naturally much cleaner, the truth is very different. Indoor air can be much dirtier than the air outside.
However, you can clean it up by taking these indoor air recommendations to heart.
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