Is your home a health risk? How to determine your home’s air pollution rate
(NC)-The quality of the air in your home can impact your health or the health of those you live with. Most people are aware that outdoor air pollution can significantly affect people’s health, but Environmental Protection Agency studies have shown that levels of air pollutants indoors may be 100 times greater.
Indoor air pollution can be a real concern because people can spend as much as 90% of their time indoors, and much of that time is in their homes. You can have an immediate or long-term reaction to poor indoor air quality.
One way to determine whether you have an indoor air quality problem is to look at how you or those in your household feel when at home.
1. Do you or others sneeze and cough in your home?
2. Do you or others in your home wake up congested or with a headache?
3. Do you or others in your home often have an irritated throat, nose or eyes?
4. If you or others in your home have any of the above symptoms, are they more common in a certain part of the house?
5. Does anyone in your home have frequent asthma episodes or respiratory infections?
6. Do you notice that you feel better when you are away from home?
If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions you may have an indoor air quality concern.
According to the experts at Venmar Ventilation, the leader in state-of-the-art air ventilation systems (www.venmar.ca), possible sources of poor indoor air quality include the following:
. Smoking indoors, smoke drifting in from outdoors, or smoke being carried indoors on clothing
. Other things that burn, like oil, gas, kerosene, charcoal briquettes, wood or candles
. Central heating, cooling or humidifying systems
. New or recently installed building materials and furnishings, including carpets and certain wood pressed products
. Household cleaning and maintenance products
. Personal care products, like hair spray or soaps
. Too much moisture in the house
. Mold and mildew
. Tracking pesticides and pollens in on shoes and clothes
. Improper circulation of fresh, outside air
According to Gerry Gagnon, Product & Market Manager for Venmar Ventilation, the most assured and practical way to clean indoor air is to invest in an air exchanger system that will filter out harmful pollutants and distribute fresh air throughout the home.
The latest technology in indoor air management is Venmar’s air exchangers which combine the benefits of both HEPA filtration and ventilation. “This system evacuates polluted indoor air and replaces it with fresh, filtered, outdoor air by trapping airborne allergens such as pollen, dust, pet dander mold and bacteria. Excess humidity during the cold season as well as harmful gaseous pollutants not trapped by the system’s HEPA filter are also drawn outside and eliminated,” added Gagnon.
Credit: www.newscanada.com