Indoor Air Quality – Health Effects and ways to improve IAQ
Clean and pure Indoor air is vital for a healthy living. A minor increase in indoor air pollutants may affect the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and give rise to immediate or long-term health problems.
As per EPA – “Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants. Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can help reduce your risk of indoor health concerns.”
Living in a pollutant air is hazardous to you and your family’s health. So you must learn to identify and get rid of pollution sources in and around your home or office to live a healthy life.
Here is a quick and brief information about IAQ and ways to improve the quality of your indoor air.
Health Effects
Sometimes exposure to indoor pollutants results in immediate health issues like irritation in eyes, nose or throat, dizziness, headaches etc. Though these can be treated but these are the reason of a real discomfort.
In some cases exposure to indoor air pollutants may trigger asthma.
Repeated or long term exposure to pollutants may cause some serious health problems like respiratory diseases, heart diseases or cancer.
However symptoms of bad indoor air pollutants vary from person to person, person’s age, immune system and pre-existing medical condition et al. Therefore you must monitor these closely. In case health condition improves when you move away from your home then certainly there is something wrong with the air inside your home and you must find ways to improve the Indoor Air Quality.
Indoor Air Pollutant Sources
Though there are many indoor air pollutants but the major ones are:
- Too much moisture
- Products used for in house cleaning, hobbies or personal care
- Building material such as newly installed floor, wrongly used asbestos-containing insulation, carpets etc
- Central heating and cooling system
- Humidification devices
- Outdoor Pollution
- Rodents infestation
- Smoking, cooking, redecorating home
- Inadequate ventilation / stuffy air due to dirty central heating and air cooling equipment
- Mold or mildew growth
Once identified, you must work to eliminate the source of air pollution
How to Improve Indoor Air Quality?
Every home is different so does its requirements. Therefore points mentioned here may not be applicable to your situation but for sure would make you more aware.
One of the most recommended, highly efficient and cost effective ways to control and improve indoor air quality is to get rid of the source of air pollution or reduce their emissions to minimal. You can seal or enclose sources containing asbestos and decrease the emission from gas stoves.
If outdoor air is not polluted then you must increase the amount of outdoor air coming inside your home. To do this, you can open the windows of your under appropriate weather conditions, use exhaust fan to emit bad air from home. These steps are advisable when you are indulged in short term activities like painting, cooking, colouring, heating with kerosene heaters etc.
Ventilation is one of the best ways to improve quality of indoor air and really helps in controlling indoor temperature.
You can use the following ways to improve ventilation:
- Natural ventilation, by opening windows and doors
- Mechanical ventilation, by using ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.
- Infiltration, a process by which outdoor air flows into the house through openings, joints and cracks in walls, floors and ceilings, and around windows and doors.
For mechanical ventilation you must take professional services and your air duct system should be well cleaned to work in an efficient manner.
Induct clean is a Licensed and Fully Insured Service Company covering the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania/Tri-State Area with the highest quality cleaning equipment and the most efficient restoration capabilities of any provider in the area. You can take our services to clean your air duct system and enjoy healthier air at your home.
