Helpful Guide To Improving Air Quality

Many of us are spending more time indoors than ever before. We work indoors in our offices only to drive home in air-conditioned cars to our fully climate-controlled homes. Comfortable, but perhaps not the best for our health.  

Indoor air quality is a major concern for many people. Most people know that the air outside can be contaminated with pollution and other chemicals, but they may not realize that the same is true of the air inside their homes.

Fortunately, there are many ways to improve the quality of your home's indoor air.

What are the Main Causes?

When it comes to air flow, few things make you quite as sick as poor indoor air quality. You might not even know about it!

Poor air quality can be caused by stale indoor air that fails to circulate well, old heating systems, and even air conditioning units. These all can increase the amount of pet dander, mold spores, dust mites, and airborne chemicals that circulate through the air.

While indoor air quality can be impacted (negatively or positively) at any time of the year, it tends to be worse in the late fall, winter, and early spring, when it’s too cold to throw open the windows to allow for better, fresher air flow.

It’s not just dust and pet dander that make up the pollutants in your home, either. Even the materials that you use to furnish your home - from carpeting and furniture to insulation - emit pollutants as they start to deteriorate and age. The devices and systems we use to maintain temperature, clean and disinfect, and conduct crafts and other hobbies can also release chemicals.

Even air fresheners and cooking smoke can be harmful.

High temperatures along with humidity levels can increase concentrations of pollutants and make them more harmful.

As a result, it’s important to be aware of the issues related to indoor air quality - and know a few ways to improve it.

Health Risks?

Believe it or not, indoor air can be five times more polluted than outdoor air. Although you might just view this as a necessary part of indoor living, the reality is that indoor air quality is something you should pay close attention to - especially if, like many people, you’ve been forced to work from home as a result of the pandemic.

Americans spend as much as 90% of their time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. While we used to spread that time out between multiple venues, with COVID-19 - related shutdowns, we’re spending more time than ever before in a single place.

Indoor air pollutants can lead to common symptoms that worsen with prolonged exposure. Left unaddressed, these symptoms can cause serious damage to our health and wellbeing.

Some of the most common symptoms of indoor air pollution include stuffy sinuses, difficulty breathing, headaches, irritability, restlessness, allergies, asthma, and more.

How to Decrease Indoor Air Pollution?

Don’t panic once you read the health risks of poor indoor air quality above. Although they can be severe, the good news is that they are relatively easy to reverse.

Sometimes, improving indoor air quality is as simple as just opening up a door. Poor ventilation can increase the level of indoor air pollutants because not enough fresh air from outdoors is being brought inside to dilute the emissions from indoor sources.

Adequate airflow can often mitigate most of the effects of indoor air pollution.

You should also inspect any items in your home that emit fumes, like fireplaces or gas stoves. Make sure these don’t have any leaks and are properly ventilated. This can also help you keep moisture to a minimum, since humidity breeds mildew and mold.

Vacuuming regularly, especially if you have upholstered furniture or carpeting, can also help, as can using a dehumidifier.

Keep It Clean

Keeping a clean home is one of the best things you can do to improve indoor air quality. This one is just a matter of simple logic! The less dust, mold, and pet dander there is in your home in general, the less there will be floating around in the air, too. 

Focus your cleaning efforts particularly on strategies that will reduce these airborne contaminants.

For example, vacuum your area rugs and carpets at least once or twice a week. Use a vacuum that is equipped with a HEPA filter. To really make a difference in your indoor air quality, nix the rugs and carpets entirely and switch to hard-surface flooring like hardwood, linoleum, or tile.

You may also notice a benefit from regularly cleaning drapes, beddings, and other fabrics that hold allergens. This is especially important if you have pets. Wash all of these items on a schedule (bedding should be washed at least once a week) in water that is at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another tip is to consider using dust mite-proof covers on mattresses, box springs, and pillows.

Of course, it’s a good idea to follow other cleaning tips to improve air quality, too, such as dusting, wiping down countertops, and clearing away any clutter. Clutter is particularly pernicious because it holds on to dust that can trigger an allergic or asthmatic reaction.

Check the Floors

Keeping the floors fresh and tidy is important, too. While we already mentioned the importance of cleaning rugs and carpets, any kind of flooring can accumulate household dust. This dust is harmful in and of itself but also because it can accumulate allergens and chemicals.

When you vacuum, use one that has strong suction and rotating brushes to help prevent dust from getting blown back out in the exhaust. You may find that you need to vacuum walls and carpet edges, too.

Mopping can also be effective, as it picks up the dust that vacuuming misses. Skip fancy cleaners and soaps - plain water is fine.

To limit the amount of dirt and dust that winds up on your floors, put a large floor mat at each and every entrance to your home. Have a no-shoes policy to reduce the amount of pesticides, dirt, and pollutants that get into your home.

While most homes built after 1978 don’t contain any lead paint (those built prior to that may still have lead paint on the walls), you can still face lead exposure from lead dust tracked in from outside.

This can be extremely harmful to young children, damaging the kidneys, central nervous system, and brain. Pesticide residue can also be tracked in and cause similar symptoms, such as brain damage.

While adults can suffer from the effects of lead and pesticide poisoning, too, children tend to be more vulnerable because they receive higher levels of exposure - they get dust on their fingers and then put their fingers in their mouths.

Again, keeping the floors clean is essential. Have people remove their shoes and keep house shoes, socks, and slippers near the door so everyone stays comfortable while they are in your home.

Keep The Greenery Outdoors

Having indoor plants is a bit of a catch-22. Although plants can help improve indoor air quality as they release oxygen and filter some chemicals from the air, they can also serve as allergy triggers for many people.

Allergic to plants? How can that be?

The reality is that it’s not the plants that most people are allergic to but the mold that can grow on the surface of the soil.

If you know this to be a particular problem with you, then you may want to move your plants outside. There, they’ll be less likely to develop mold because it will be easier for air to circulate.

Change Filters

When you rely on a forced-air heating system, it’s important that you regularly change out the filters. These filters trap dust and other pollutants rather than recirculating them around your home. However, if you don’t swap out the filters, you aren’t doing much to improve the indoor air quality.

You may want to invest in having your ducts professionally cleaned, too. This can remove trapped dust.

Test for Radon

Regardless of the age of your home, it’s a good idea to test for radon. The second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, radon is a radioactive gas found in nearly all soils.

It can also be found in things like granite countertops.

Have our home tested - it’s inexpensive and takes just a few minutes.

Air Purifier

Consider buying an air purifier. These aren't always cheap but they can make a huge difference in improving your indoor air quality. Air purifiers are essential if you have pets, too, since they can help capture many kinds of irritants (like pet hair and dander) that make you sick.

Ultimately, you’re not going to be able to remove every single allergen or contaminant from the air. However, you can cut down on them quite significantly, which can work wonders in helping you solve your problem.

You don’t need a separate air purifier for each room in your home, either. In fact, there are portable air purifiers you can purchase that sanitize air by filtering out pollutants. These can target specific particles like gases, mold, and dust, or in some cases, all of them. Just make sure you get an air purifier that matches the size of your room.

Keep A Healthy Level of Humidity

Too much humidity in the air can lead to mold growth, but too little can cause dryness that makes it tough to breathe. Because of this, it’s important to become the Goldilocks of humidity levels and do your best to maintain a healthy level in your home.

Consider installing a dehumidifier in particularly damp areas of the home, like the basement, to prevent mold growth. Bathrooms also tend to harbor humidity and mold, so consider installing dehumidifiers there (or at least make sure these spaces are well-ventilated).

When you clean your bathroom and basement, be sure to scrape off any visible mold that you notice on the walls, in the shower or tub, or on any fixtures. Treat with bleach whenever possible (but open a window when you do).

In addition to installing a dehumidifier and keeping the bathroom wiped down, there are other tips you can follow to maintain healthy humidity levels. For example, make sure your clothes dryer is vented to the outside and use an exhaust fan or crack a window when running the dishwasher, bathing, or cooking.

Make sure any leaky plumbing is repaired promptly and empty drip pans in your dehumidifier and air conditioner. Don’t overwater houseplants and if any water gets spilled, dry it up promptly.

No Smoking

Your home should be a 100% no-smoke zone. Perhaps the single most damaging indoor air pollutant is secondhand cigarette smoke, which contains more than 4,000 different chemicals.

It’s doubly important that you keep the smoke out if you have children. It can increase a child’s risk of developing respiratory and ear infections, cancer, asthma, and even sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Of course, smoke can also cause heart attacks, cancer, stroke, and breathing problems.

As a side note, it’s also a good idea to run fans in the kitchen and bathroom as needed to remove fumes from cooking or cleaning products.

Relax and Rest At Ease With Improved Indoor Air Quality

One more tip to help improve indoor air quality? Open up those windows and let the fresh air inside! This might not be quite as pleasant in the wintertime, but if you can tolerate a slight dip in the temperature, it can work wonders in providing your home with a breath of fresh air.

Air quality is something we often take for granted. We have no choice but to breathe, so it’s important that our air be clean and healthy.

Whether you're trying to improve the air quality in your home or workplace, there are a number of simple steps that can be taken.

Regardless of whether you try one tip at a time or implement them all at once, your family will benefit from cleaner air and improved health while also saving money on energy bills, in many cases.

From purchasing an ionizer and/or purifier for your personal space to taking advantage of natural light as much as possible (both inside and outside), these tips should help make life better - and of course, more comfortable!

Rebekah Pierce is a professional social blogger and has worked on several online publications including Citrus Sleep. Rebekah is an experienced content writer and copyeditor. You will find many of her works throughout CitrusSleep.com that cover a wide array of subjects including sleep education, natural, sleep products, electronics, fashion and many more. She is passionate about her work and family.

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