Are you making your home unhealthy?
Unintended consequences are common – you do something for the good, but it ends up something not so good. So, in the continued attempt to ‘keep the heat in’ and save your pennies and keep germs away, are you generating air pollution in your home which impacts the health of you and your loved ones?
If you're elderly or you have a pre-existing health condition, such as asthma, heart disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you're particularly vulnerable to the effects of pollution. Children and babies have quicker breathing rates than adults – taking in more air into their still developing lungs.
Ok enough.
How can you improve your indoor air quality?
Here’s 5 key tips to help.
1. Get the air moving (and we don’t just mean opening the window)
Have you improved your home with cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, double glazing, more insulation?
You’ve made your home more airtight than it ever has been but you still need to breathe!
Cooking produces grease, smoke, smells and moisture.
Showing and bathing creates moisture
Outdoor air coming in from outside introduces pollutants
Products, furnishings and man-made items bring in more pollutants
Your pet’s dead skin cells (dander) is on the sofa and clothes
the list is endless.
Consider how effective the ventilation is in your home.
Ventilation helps dilute pollutants and bring in fresh air.
Switch on your kitchen hood and fans during and after cooking – even if you find them annoyingly noisy – to clear the air of oil and other ingredients that have evaporated into it. Try having one that is extracted to outside rather than a recirculating one – at the very least change and clean the filter regularly.
Have low energy, continuously running extractor fans in wet rooms to remove moisture, prevent condensation and mould and remove any pollutants from toiletries and home cleaning products. If you live in a new build you’re likely to have a whole house mechanical system – look after it and it will look after you! (recommended annual servicing)
Don’t block or decorating over air bricks and trickle vents on windows, even if you've heard that doing so could help you save on your heating bill – they are there for a reason!
Keep your ventilation systems serviced and well maintained. They are easily clogged with dust, debris and grease which impacts the ability for them to do their job!
2. Go Chemical Free.
What chemicals are lurking under your kitchen sink?
HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS!
A single cleaner can contain as many as 63 chemicals.
Great.
Consider switching to ways of cleaning that are less polluting.
There once was a time without chemicals – when baking soda and white vinegar worked to descale and clean well. Guess, what, this is still the case – including lemon juice too.
The thing with common householder cleaners is that we love the SMELL. The smell of clean is usually toxic though.
We are wiping away the grime, but introducing more pollutants into the house that react with the air. Remember those unintended consequences?
Choose cream cleaners or fragrances from natural essential oils – not chemicals! Or look at alternatives… did you know you can clean your home with healthy, live bacteria which targets grime and the bad bacteria for 72 hours… think YAKULT for your home surfaces!
It’s not just your cleaning products either – formeldahyde is inside your home -yes it is – from man-made furniture and textiles! VOC’s from paint and pollutants from plastics are all introduced by the things we buy and place inside! Maybe time for some small changes?
3. Purify the air you breathe in your living space
We’re a strong believe in getting to route problem of the cause of allergies, irritations and poor indoor air quality – reduce your pollutants, dilute the air etc – but you should also consider an air purifier in your home. They are particularly useful for allergies, respiratory conditions and concerns around indoor air quality due to pollution levels.
Always choose one with True HEPA filter as the basic requirements. HEPA filters are designed to trap the common indoor pollutants such as pollen, dust and pet dander.
If you need manage different types of pollutants, air purifiers offer multi filtration processes including the following;
Types of air filters and filtration in air purifiers;
High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)
Fibrous media air filters remove particles from the air
Activated carbon
Activated carbon removes gases from the air
Ionizer
This uses a high-voltage wire or carbon brush to remove particles from the air. The negative ions interact with the air particles, causing them to attract to the filter or other objects in the room
Electrostatic precipitation
Similar to ionizers, this uses a wire to charge particles and bring them to the filter
Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI)
UV light inactivates microbes. This doesn’t pull out the microbes from the space entirely — it only inactivates them
Photoelectrochemical oxidation (PECO)
This newer technology removes very small particles in the air by making a photoelectrochemical reaction that removes and destroys pollutants.
4. Avoid wood burning stoves
Wood burning stoves, whilst aesthetically pleasing and reduce your heating bill don’t really offer much in the way of environmental or health benefits. High levels of PM2.5 and PM1 (the tiniest of tiny particles) are released from the stoves, they enter your lungs and can penetrate your blood stream. I think we’ll leave that right there.
Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation recommend avoiding the use of wood-burning stoves. If you already have a wood-burning stove or fire, you should burn only untreated, fully dried wood.
5. Control your humidity!
Here we are again with those unintended consequences… we’ve sealed up the doors and windows and cracks in the façade of the building to keep the heat in, but the level of moisture in your air is important for your health, and especially for those suffering with respiratory illnesses and issues. Mould, bacteria and viruses love warm dark damp environments, and if you provide one for them they will happily occupy your home.
As you crank up that thermostat the air becomes drier. The same with the air conditioning unit. Great, it’s hot or cold, but it’s dry as hell. This irritates the throat and eyes - we’ve all left the a/c on in the hotel room on holiday haven’t me? Woken up and can hardly talk – yep that’s it!
It’s a balancing act for sure.
It may be an idea to supplement your home environment with a humidifier or dehumidifier depending on the climate where you live and your preferences to maintain an indoor humidity level of between 30 and 50 percent, but no higher than 60 percent.
If you have allergies, issues with indoor air pollution or concerns around your health and well-being, please call us. We can discuss whole house ventilation with pollution filters and offer advice on suitable solutions.
Call us on 033 0223 6776 or email sales@theairshop.co.uk