Studies show that people can spend as much as 90% of their time indoors. While we are often educated about the impact of air pollution on our health, this staggering number shows the importance of assessing and maintaining good indoor air quality free of harmful particles and triggers that can lead to serious health issues. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor pollution levels can sometimes be up to 100 times higher than outdoors, with a greater impact on your well-being. From investing in a quality air purifier and prioritizing proper ventilation to regularly conducting indoor air quality testing, there are many easy and proactive ways to ensure safe and clean air within your home.

Factors that Affect Air Quality

There are four main factors that affect indoor quality: Ventilation, humidity, filtration, and the various sources of pollutants, irritants, and allergens. When a home has poor ventilation, it causes air to become trapped indoors. This often results in air becoming more polluted and increases moisture, raising humidity levels. Allowing fresh air to regularly circulate around your home ensures that fresh oxygen is constantly being introduced and any indoor pollution is removed. Furthermore, if the air within your home becomes too humid, small liquid droplets are formed, which trap pollutants and allow for harmful contributors like mold and dust to thrive.

All air conditioning and central heating systems have filters that trap dust and other particles in the air. Per the manufacturer's guidelines, these filters must be changed or cleaned regularly to guarantee they work effectively and efficiently.

Both indoor and outdoor air can contain many sources of allergens, including pollen, dust mites, mold, and cockroaches. These substances irritate the respiratory systems of people who suffer from allergies and asthma, leading to breathing difficulties and potentially triggering additional issues like painful skin rashes.

Other pollutants and irritants commonly found in the home are scented candles, perfumes, wax melts, fragranced potpourri, cleaning supplies, fuel-burning heat sources, radon, smoke, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Improvement Tips

There are many effective ways to boost the quality of the air inside your home, which can lower your risk of developing unwanted health conditions and improve your overall quality of life.

Air Purifiers

Introducing a quality air purifier into your home can significantly improve indoor air quality. To ensure maximum effectiveness, it is best to opt for a machine that uses high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filters, which are proven to do the best job at removing particles from the air.

However, it is essential to note that if you want to reduce pollution like mold spores, pet dander, smoke, and VOCs, it is crucial to select a purifier that uses HEPA filters.

Reduce Dampness

Dampness in indoor spaces can lead to a multitude of harmful and potentially fatal health issues, mainly surrounding mold growth. But high humidity levels and general dampness can also facilitate VOCs leaching into the air more easily. There are various causes of dampness within the home, such as pooling water, leaking pipes and roofs, humid climates, and low ventilation in rooms with excessive steam, like kitchens and bathrooms.

Investing in a dehumidifier, eliminating areas with pooling water and extensive moisture, and allowing proper ventilation when you shower and cook will help lower dampness levels in your living space.

Improve Ventilation

One of the simplest and cheapest ways to improve indoor air quality is to prioritize proper ventilation. Opening windows and doors to let outside air easily blow through your home will remove any pollutants, allergens, and irritants, as long as the outside air is clean and low in pollen.

However, air can enter your home through multiple sources, like vents and weak spots like cracks in the walls, ceiling, and small gaps around doors and windows. While it is difficult to completely eliminate these small spaces that allow air to enter the home, ensuring that air entering through filtered vents does not contribute to the issue is vital.

Mitigate Pollutants

One of the most important steps to improving indoor air quality is identifying common sources of pollution within the home and working to lower or eliminate them. These pollutants will often include radon, a natural radioactive gas that can seep throughs crack in the earth and build up inside, secondhand smoke, mainly from exhaled cigarette smoke and smoke released from fire places, formaldehyde, a common volatile organic compound typically found in standard household items like glues use in composite wood and many types of wood furniture, and cleaning products like bleach, cleaning sprays and glass cleaners.

Control Allergens

In nearly all homes, a variety of common allergens and irritants can be found, like mold, pet dander, dust, and dust mites. Finding efficient ways to control and reduce these allergens will drastically improve the overall air quality and reduce your chances of suffering from additional symptoms and health issues.

Effective control strategies include regularly dusting and vacuuming your home, washing bedding in hot water twice a month to remove dust mites, brushing and bathing your pet at least once a week, and opting for hypoallergenic pillows and impermeable mattresses to prevent dust mites.