The Dangers of Poor Quality Indoor Air and What to Do to Fix It

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is the expression used to describe the air quality inside and around your home and office buildings and structures. IAQ is directly involved with the health and comfort of the occupants of the building. That means you and your family.

Understanding the dangers of poor indoor air quality would help you put it under control and reduce health risks. Those risks, which may have short-term effects and long-term effects.

Short-term Effects of Poor Indoor Air Quality

Some health effects occur immediately after direct or consistent exposure to a pollutant. They include red eyes, running nose, burning throat, headaches, nausea, and low energy. These short-term effects often do not last long and are treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply removing the person from the contaminated environment, if it can be detected. Shortly after exposure to poor indoor air quality, symptoms of diseases like asthma may occur, heighten or made worse.

The probability of instant reactions to poor indoor air quality may rest on many factors such as age and previous medical conditions. Occasionally, sensitivity plays a significant role on how a person would react to a polluted indoor air quality, which is different for each. Some people begin to show the symptoms after a long time of repetitive or high-level exposure to biological or chemical pollutants.

The immediate effects of exposure to poor indoor air quality are hard to recognize as they often mirror the symptoms of other viral diseases like flu. Therefore, it is crucial to make a note of when and where the symptoms occurred. If the symptoms stop showing up when the person is away from the building, for example, you should put in the effort to determine the sources, which may be the probable causes. Some of these sources could be an inadequate supply of outdoor air entering the doors (poor ventilation), heating, cooling, or humidity conditions prevailing indoors.

Long-term Effects of Poor Indoor Air Quality

In other cases, the health effects may occur after years of exposure or after prolonged or repeated periods of exposure. These effects are most dangerous and could be fatal; they include respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer. It is crucial to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home because sometimes the symptoms are not noticeable until after it is too late.

No doubt that the harmful particles found in indoor air are hazardous. However, we know very little about what concentrations or exposure periods are responsible for specific health issues. Everyone is different and therefore react quite differently to exposure to poor indoor air quality. There is still much research left to grasp better the implications of the average pollutant concentrations occurring naturally in homes. Furthermore, there is still little known about what health issues are associated with higher concentrations that happen during short intervals of time.

What Causes Poor Indoor Air Quality?

No shortage of poor indoor air quality causes, some of them include:

Pollutants that are developed and released by building or furnishing materials.
Pollutants are occurring from normal daily activity within the building including but not limited to cleaning, cooking, office machines emissions, pesticides.
Bugs, microorganisms, pets, and other biological contaminations.
Outside contaminations are entering into the building. For examples, natural gas vents, flues, exhausts from sanitary stacks, or boiler stacks.

The poor ventilation in the building results in low air exchange rate in a way that less fresh air enters the building to dilute or flush out contaminations. Ove time, impurities accumulate and concentrate on the building. Mind you, it does not mean that indoor air must be pure and pristine for you to be healthy. It just means that you should be subjected to air quality that is equal or at least not “significantly worse” than the air outside mainly, when you do not experience any health issues when exposed to outside air (and as long as the outdoor air is relatively acceptable by USEPA or other health criteria).

How to Improve Air Quality in Home

Use an air purifier: a portable air purifier in your home is the first line of defense in your home as it helps reduce allergens and capture up to 99.97% of microscopic particles that go the through the filters. Here is an article explaining what air purifiers are and how to choose the best one for you.
Open the Windows: This one is obvious, but it is often neglected. Opening the windows for 5-10 minutes each morning help the fresh air from the outside to enter the house, and most importantly sun rays can kill many types of microbes.
No Smoking: Make your house a no smoking area. The smoke from the cigarettes contain more than 4,000 harmful chemicals that stick to everything. Either quit smoking, smoke outside or politely ask your guests to light outside your home.
Get a pet plant: Plants are beautiful and useful as they look classy and would fight toxins for you. English Ivy or Variegated snake plants are highly skilled in blocking pollutants. Plants are great filters; you should get a plant.
Pay close attention to the floor: Generally, you should keep your home clean and tidy, but pay particular attention to the floors. Dust and air pollutants tend to settle on the ground and released into the air when someone walks on the floor. Carpets are home for such germs and microbes, so clean your carpets regularly too.
Taking care of humidity: You should always strive to keep humidity between 30% to 50% in your home, it will restrict the growth of mold and the appearance of dust mites that pollute the air. If you want to increase humidity, use a humidifier or vaporizer, if you want to decrease humidity, just open the windows (provided it is not humid outside), turn on an air conditioner or a fan, or use a dehumidifier.

Also:

Fix any water leaks in your home as soon as possible.
If you use a clothes dryer, make sure to open the window when it is venting.
Avoid using aerosol spray products because they create a fertile environment for toxic agents. (Air fresheners, hair sprays)