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Indoor Air
Quality
8 Ways to Know If Your Indoor
Air Quality Is Bad
Jeff Flowers
While the specific definition of indoor air quality
remains under debate, it is important to understand the ways in which certain
contaminants and airborne pollutants in your home can have an affect you.
Many experts define the purity by the comfort of a building’s
occupants, and they believe that some individuals can find certain situations
acceptable while others may not.
No matter if you are feeling the effects, compared to
others in your home, improving poor indoor air quality should be a priority to
every homeowner.
Unfortunately, it may take some time to put together
the link between poor indoor air and the health symptoms or complications that
you may be experiencing, if they’re even linked at all.
Often the case, the air in your home might be harming
you more subtly, and you don’t even know it.
This is precisely why it’s important to do what you
can to improve the air quality.
Not too long ago, we discussed why you have bad indoor
air quality.
Today, we want to discuss why it is important to
understand and identify potential issues, as well as know what you can do to
help improve the quality of your indoor air.
Here are a few signs you will want to look for when
determining the quality of the air in your home or workplace.
1) Pay Attention to Your Allergies
It may be tempting to attribute a recent
allergy episode to a change in seasons or weather patterns, but it could likely
be a sensitive reaction to the contaminants in your indoor environment.
Many people experience allergies in
response to a range of materials, and in fact, concentrations of pollen, dust
and other irritants can be more concentrated in enclosed locations than they
are in outdoor spaces.
Potential symptoms include coughing,
sneezing, watery eyes, headaches, bloody noses and congestion.
If you are experiencing any of these
issues, pay careful attention to when the symptoms arrive and when they
disappear.
If you start to experience issues shortly
after you walk into your office or home and those same symptoms disappear
shortly after you leave, then you are likely dealing with poor air quality
within that space.
2) Notice New or Unusual Symptoms
Many health symptoms or ailments
will likely be mild.
However, some contaminants like
asbestos, toxic mold spores and other hazardous chemicals can have a much more
extreme effect on your health.
If you begin to notice dizziness,
nausea, rashes, fevers, chills, fatigue, vomiting, muscle pain, shortness of
breath or hearing loss, then it’s very possible that you may be dealing with a
much more extreme issue.
If you find yourself in this
scenario, you will want to call a professional to identify and fix the issue as
quickly as possible.
It would also be wise to consult
with your doctor about the symptoms you are experiencing as soon as possible,
and possibly once again once you identify what was sabotaging the air quality
in your home.
3) Be Careful of Your Lungs
If left unaddressed, the
chemicals in your home may quickly affect your lungs and, in extreme
situations, possibly lead to some pretty severe health conditions.
For example, if you frequently
experience bronchitis or pneumonia symptoms, it could be a direct result of the
airborne particles you’re breathing in from your home.
Additionally, if you don’t
address the reasons why this is happening or discuss your healthy symptoms with
your doctor, then your symptoms may develop into something much worse.
If you are experiencing any of
these issues, there are a number of things you can do to correct the issue.
Firstly, get your air system
inspected and/or cleaned.
Make sure you change your air
filters on a regular basis and get an air purification system in your home.
Ideally, you want to catch
smaller symptoms before they turn into a bigger problem, especially when the
health of you or your family is on the line.
4) Note Your Surrounding Environment
Once you have begun to notice
health symptoms, you will want to start investigating potential causes for the
issue.
First, consider the factors in
the environment surrounding your home or office.
If there is new construction
going on near you, then perhaps that is the culprit.
Construction, renovations or
manufacturing can release a number of chemicals and particles into the air,
which may easily enter through ducts and ventilation.
This is a common scenario for
office environments where you have little control over what goes on in the room
next to you.
Additionally, if you live in a
tightly-packed neighborhood, it may be wise to pay close attention to the
actions of your neighbors.
If they have recently sprayed
their lawn with insecticides, painted their house or somehow used any other
chemicals, they may be entering your home and polluting your indoor air.
Noticing simple changes to your
surrounding environment can go a long way in helping you identify a potential
problem.
And once you know what is
triggering your allergies, you will have a better idea of what you can do to
protect yourself.
5) Note Home Improvements or Repairs
While your neighbors might be the
cause, you also want to look at improvements, renovations or other changes
within your own home.
If you have recently replaced the
flooring, painted or made other major updates, the purity of your air may be
suffering as a result.
The chemicals in your own home
can collect in your HVAC system and then start circulating throughout your
entire home. As a result, you may quickly experience a negative effect on your
health.
To prevent this, be sure to thoroughly
clean up after the project has been completed, as well as change your air
filters immediately.
It would also be wise to buy an
air purifier to help improve your air quality by removing potentially harmful
particles that were recently kicked up.
6) Rule Out Other Culprits
Excluding your neighbors or
recent home renovations, there can also be a number of other environmental
causes for health issues that you may be tempted to blame on poor indoor air
quality.
While polluted air may be a
significant factor, there are a number of other sources that can be the reason
behind the symptoms you may be experiencing.
Some of these can include noise,
lighting, ergonomics or thermal comfort.
Each of these can also lead to
eye discomfort, sneezing, coughing, sleepiness and a multitude of other health
ailments.
Double check that none of these
sources are present before you definitively determine that poor air quality is
to blame.
Either way, taking steps to
improve your air quality is a good thing to do, even if it’s not the culprit
behind the symptoms you experience.
7) Look for Inconsistencies In Air Distribution
Whether you are experiencing
health symptoms or not, you can identify issues by noticing inconsistencies
throughout a building.
If one spot is colder or warmer
than another, you likely have an issue in the system that could potentially be
affecting the purity of airflow.
This not only plays a role in the
overall air quality, but also the temperature in each area.
In addition, you want to pay
attention to the humidity levels of different areas.
Mugginess or dryness at
particular times throughout the year can be a sign that you have poor indoor
air quality.
Depending on the scenario that
you find yourself in, a humidifier or dehumidifier can help you get the
humidity back to a level that is beneficial to everyone within the environment.
8) Contact a Professional
If you have noted a few of the
above signs, then it is likely time to contact an expert.
They will be able to run some
tests and inspect your home to discover the severity of the problem. Not only
will they be able to tell you the source of the problem, but also offer some
suggestions on what you can do to improve your indoor air quality.
Once the source has been
identified, you will want to form a plan of action to best approach and solve
the problem.
While you may be able to
accomplish this easily by purchasing an air purifier or humidifier, there are
other issues that may require more time and money.
For example, you may need to make
some upgrades to your HVAC system, or remove asbestos from your home.
There are an endless number of
sources that may be causing air pollution in your home. Ultimately, an expert
can help you find the best route to the solution.
Why Indoor Air Quality Matters
Poor air quality has an important impact on the
comfort of your home and your overall health.
While some symptoms may seem mild, they may often
escalate to more complex health complications.
This can be easily minimized by doing both of the
following:
1. Change your air filters on a regular basis.
2. Use an air purifier with a HEPA filter.
By paying close attention to the symptoms you may be
experiencing and identifying the sources of the problems, you can easily
address the issue and work to improving your indoor air quality.
Jeff Flowers. Plagued by a chronic case of curiosity, Jeff Flowers
is just a dude that annoys everyone around him with his loquacious goofiness.
From beer to home living, Jeff is just trying to hack his way through life and
write a few notes about it along the way. You can follow his ramblings here, or
listen to him complain about Austin traffic on Twitter at @Bukowsky.
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