Improving indoor Air Quality

Pollution Everywhere

Air pollution reminds us strongly about smog, ozone or haze in the air. But the incredible thing is that the air inside homes, offices and other buildings are also not free from this deadly pollution. Actually, studies have shown that the air within is more hazardous than without. The indoor air contains lead from dust, formaldehyde, fire retardants, radon and chemicals from cleaners. The pollutants could either be already existing inside or coming in through a new mattress, carpet cleaners, new furniture or fresh paint on the walls. These prove rather hazardous to health and thus, improving indoor air quality has become quite imperative.

Hazardous Atmosphere

The principal victims of impure air indoors are children, the elderly people and those who are especially sensitive to indoor pollutants. These may affect their health immediately or years later after they are exposed to it continually.

Recently the indoor allergens have taken significantly dangerous perspective because we are prone to spend larger part of our time indoors and the modern homes are rather airtight. So, we are more easily exposed to this danger now than we were three or four decades ago. Thus, improving indoor air quality has become an urgent necessity.

Precautionary Measures

There are certain steps that we can certainly take for improving indoor air quality:

• Keeping the floors fresh

1. By sucking up the dust with a vacuum cleaner.
2. Mopping picks up the dust left behind by vacuum cleaning.
3. Keeping a large door mat to keep out the dirt on the shoes.

• Healthy level of humidity is around 30% to 50%. For dehumidifying home we have to

1. Use exhaust fan, while cooking.
2. Reduce overwatering the plants
3. Fix leaky plumbing
4. Empty drip pans in the window air conditioner

• No smoking in home. Cigarette smoke contains 4000 chemicals and is responsible for respiratory infection, asthma and cancer.
• Radon, a radioactive gas, moves up through the grounds and enters our home through cracks in the foundation. Airtight homes especially can have radon problem that can cause lung cancer.
• Have natural good smell. Detergents and air fresheners emit chemicals into the air that adversely affect our health. To prevent this we should:

1. Use laundry products that are naturally scented
2. Start using mild cleaners
3. Stop using deodorants, hair sprays and air fresheners
4. Let in fresh air by opening windows.
5. Use lemons and baking soda to infuse good, clean scent in the kitchen.

Besides these, we can bring nature indoor by decorating our rooms with fern, spider plant or aloe vera for improving indoor air quality. Research shows that the foliage and roots of plants absorb chemical pollutants that are released by synthetic materials, thereby acting as natural air purifier.