Your Home’s Indoor Air: What Your Body May Be Telling You
If you’re like most homeowners, you spend more time in your home than anywhere else, so your home’s indoor air quality has a significant effect on your health. If the air you take in isn’t clean, you may begin to notice negative effects on your health. By improving your home’s indoor air quality, you can also improve your family’s overall health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are three levels of danger when it comes to indoor air quality.
1. Allergens and particulates – This level includes pet allergens like fur and dander, dust, pollen, mold, mildew, tobacco smoke and more. Signs that you have allergens and particulates at a level that can affect your health include irritation of the nose and throat, congestion, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, runny nose and asthma flares.
2. Infectious agents – These include bacterial infections like streptococcus (responsible for strep throat) and pneumococcus (responsible for pneumonia, ear infections and meningitis), as well as viral infections like SARS and cold viruses. Signs include recurring upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, bronchitis and ear and throat infections.
3. Toxic compounds – This level includes carbon monoxide (a byproduct of gas- or oil-burning appliances), formaldehyde (which can be found in some older foam insulation among other places) and pesticides. Signs that toxic compounds might be a problem include memory lapses, headaches, lethargy and mild depression.
If you’re experiencing some of these symptoms, your home’s indoor air quality may need some improvement. Whole-house cleaning systems are effective at improving indoor air quality by cleaning your air in different ways. Some use high-efficiency filters that are a higher grade than those just designed to protect your HVAC equipment. These filters remove pollutants from the air as air flows through them. Other systems use UV lights installed in the ductwork that kills off microorganisms.
For more information on how to improve your home’s indoor air quality or any other HVAC matters, contact Sobieski Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
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