Among the possible sources of poor indoor air quality are often our own everyday activities (cooking, heating, cleaning etc) and the release of pollutants such car exhaust, burning of candles, wood and other fuels.
Given the many health risks of poor air quality it is especially harmful for children and old aged people and thus it is crucial to fight it.
Top tips to improve indoor air quality:
There are many ways to clean the air quality in our houses. Some of the ways are discussed here;
- Renewing the air: Ventilating the house for quite a period of time is the first step towards improving air quality. It must be accompanied by other methods too as only ventilating won’t do.
- Installing a ventilation system is also a good way to purify air as house insulation nowadays does not allow proper ventilation.
- Cleansing products can release high concentrations of volatile substances, some of which are very harmful to the indoor air system. The air label score certification helps choose the lowest emitting products.
- Monitoring humidity levels is a highly effective system to keep good quality air in the house. Indoor humidity levels should be 40 to 70 percent otherwise moulds will develop and degrade air quality.
- Indoor smoking should be avoided as it degrades air quality and this can lead to suffocation of people inside the house. Smoke even gets into the fabrics and may release afterwards degrading the air quality in the long term.
- Furniture also releases pollutants over its life cycle. The various chemicals in the furniture like formaldehyde that is a known carcinogen according to IARC because of the glues used in the manufacturing process. Thus it’s very important to get an idea on how to choose furniture that will reduce pollution as little as possible.
- Use low emission paints as paints emit a lot of pollutants in the house even after a quite a long period of time. Thus it needs to be taken care of.
- Cooking emits VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) such as nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide in large quantities. Thus an air extraction system is required to maintain air quality in the house.
- Cleaning the house properly everyday should be one of the primary tasks so that air quality remains permissible within the limits.
- Building materials and substances also release pollutants in the system just like furniture. Thus choosing low emission building materials will be beneficial for good indoor air quality in the long term.
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