Everyone spends a lot of time indoors, yet for most people, indoor air quality isn’t really on their minds. While most pollutants are associated with the outdoors (such as car and factory fumes) there’s plenty to consider inside your own home, too.
This article will explore the fundamental aspects you should know about keeping your house fresh, from the factors that determine clear air and the impact on your health, to steps you can take to stay safe.
How Do We Define Indoor Air Quality?
Defining indoor air quality is actually pretty easy: it simply refers to the condition of the air as it relates to our health, which includes whether it causes allergies to more serious health concerns over the long term. Here are some of the main elements to consider that affect the quality of the air in your home:
Humidity
Humidity refers to the amount of moisture in the air, and too much or too little can be a bad thing. When there’s high humidity, there’s an increased risk of mold, which over time, can affect breathing quite seriously. Low humidity typically causes irritation to the skin and airway by creating dryness.
Pollutants
Pollutants cover a broad range of particles, and can sometimes mean different things to different people. The category includes dust, pollen, and pet hair, to extremely dangerous gases like radon and carbon monoxide.
These latter types of pollutants are typically more constant, but there are other types that can occur once every so often, such as those associated with cleaning products or high VOC paint (Volatile Organic Compounds – chemicals found in a variety of products that can be harmful to human health in higher concentrations).
Ventilation
When your home is poorly ventilated (no or closed windows, lack of properly functioning air ducts, etc) pollutants have a propensity to build up and become trapped, which you then have a higher risk of breathing in.
How Poor Indoor Air Quality Affects Health
As briefly touched on above, poor indoor air quality can negatively affect your health in a number of different ways – ranging from merely a nuisance to a serious health concern. Here are the main health considerations:
Typical Short-Term Effects
When it comes to the mildest effects, people with allergies are the most affected. Depending on their sensitivity to each pollutant, those who are allergic suffer more moderate effects compared to people who are not. Symptoms from dust and pet hair include eye and throat irritation, fatigue, headaches, and sometimes dizziness.
People with asthma may also notice that their symptoms are worse in areas where indoor pollutants are higher.
Long-Term Effects
The long-term effects of indoor air pollution are harder to quantify, with pollutants coming from a great many sources. VOCs have already been mentioned, but there are also major risks if people smoke indoors, for example. For those who live by a main road, there’s the potential issue of fumes from outside entering the home, and even gas cooking stoves emit nitrogen dioxide, which is very dangerous at high levels.
A build-up of these pollutants in the body can even lead to cancer over the long term, so it’s crucial to assess your home to see if there are any risks and what can be made safer.
Keeping Your Indoor Air Clean
Keeping your air safe and clean can require a fair bit of effort, so here’s what you should be thinking about:
Regular Cleaning
One of the easiest, yet most important aspects of improving indoor air quality is regular home cleaning. Dust and vacuum on a regular basis, and if you can, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to eliminate dust and pet hair more effectively.
Keep Fresh Air Coming In
Make sure to open your windows when possible to enable fresh air to enter and circulate your home – don’t let stale air build-up. This is especially important if you’ve recently engaged in activities that raise the risk of pollution, such as some types of cooking or painting. If you’re a smoker, always make sure you smoke outside if you live with others!
Air Duct Cleaning
If you have an HVAC system, the air ducts in your home are a crucial part of keeping your air fresh – they’re there to bring in warm or cool air to ventilate the house, and they need to be cleaned regularly. Air duct cleaning maintenance is carried out by a qualified professional: be sure to prioritise this element of your indoor air quality, as it can make a huge difference.
Wrapping Up
Indoor air quality is a crucial part of living healthily and happily in your home, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. By adhering to the simple steps above and keeping a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule, the air in your home will remain up to standard.
