Top 5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Mar 13, 2010 | Air Quality

Snapshot | Health concerns | Problems and solutions

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an increasingly important concern to the average American. We spend more time indoors than ever before, and we're building and improving our homes to make them more airtight. What's going on inside our homes is not pretty: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that indoor air quality is 2 to 5 times worse than outdoor air quality.

More ambitious steps to improve IAQ are: check for rodents and other pests; eliminate sources of moisture; and establish adequate ventilation.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America estimates that 60 million Americans-that's one quarter of us-suffer from asthma or allergies. Improving our indoor air quality is a great way to start breathing easier.

Poor indoor air quality can lead to significant health issues:

• Radon is responsible for 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S., according to the EPA. That's 7,000 more deaths a year than from drunk driving.

• Eight out of 10 Americans are exposed to dust mites, 6 out of 10 are exposed to pet dander. Both are common causes of indoor allergies (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America).

• "Humidifier fever" results in flu-like symptoms caused by the bacteria and fungi that reside in the water wells of humidifiers (EPA).

• Gases, released by building materials and cleaning products and known as VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are 6 to 10 times higher indoors than outdoors-even in areas with petrochemical plants!

The list goes on. Bottom line: The sources of IAQ problems are all around us and their consequences affect our lives. It's worth addressing in your home.

Here are 5 common IAQ problem areas and strategies on how to reduce their impact on your home.

1. IAQ problems enter the home on our feet, on our pets and in our shopping bags. Our feet carry allergens and dirt. Pets bring in the same and pet dander. Our cleaning products can emit toxins. The solutions are pretty simple:

• Use doormats outside and inside the high-traffic doorways. Put a large mat in front of your door and vacumn it once a month. The doormats catch most of the particulate, so be sure to vacumn out the trappings so your doormat does not turn into a breeding ground for bacteria and fungus.

• Take off shoes when entering your home. People track in all sorts of chemicals via the dirt on their shoes. A door mat helps, but getting out of shoes is even better.

• Avoid cleaning products with the words "caution," "danger," and "warning" on the label. There are reasons these words appear, and those reasons don't improve indoor air!

2. Test for radon. Radon is a colorless, odorless gas emitted from naturally decaying uranium in the soil. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. today. If you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.

The picture below shows 7 typical paths for radon to enter the home:

While radon emissions are more prevalent in some parts of the U.S. than others, there is the possibility of a radon issue in almost every neighborhood. Get your home tested: You can get a quick test from an online store or at a home improvement store for $20 or less. Place the test kit detector in your home for 2 to 3 days, and then send the sample to a lab for testing. If the score on the quick test exceeds 4 Pico curies per liter of air (the units of measurement for radon emissions), invest in a 90-day test by a professional to get a more accurate reading.

3. Get rid of pests. Pests include cockroaches, dust mites, and rodents. (Dust mites are microscopic bugs that live in the dust and are dropped from our skin.) Each of these causes an allergic reaction. Cockroach droppings, for example, trigger asthma and nasal allergies.

• Reduce dust mites in your home by vacuming regularly and washing your towels and sheets once a week. Vacuum your stuffed furniture, too!

• Reduce cockroach populations by eliminating sources of moisture or hire an exterminator. Cockroaches have become immune to the cheaper chemical pesticides at the store.

• Getting rid of rodents is a job for a professional, if the mouse traps aren't working. Don't delay: Rodents are a significant carrier of disease.

4. Stop the mold by eliminating moisture. Daily exposure to mold does not always cause illne, but it has been known to cause respiratory problems, headaches, watery eyes, dizziness, lethargy, rashes, and other reactions. Mold and other biological contaminants can trigger asthma, too.

The strategy for getting rid of mold is straightforward:

• Get the moisture out of your home. Use a bathroom fan during showers and the kitchen exhaust fan during cooking and leave them on 20 minutes afterward. Empty drip pans in humidifiers and air conditioners.

• Stop the moisture from coming in. Seal leaks and cracks. Look at the slope of the ground around your house: It should direct water away from your home.

• Scrub out mold. Use bristles and bleach (1 part bleach to 4 parts water). An eco-friendly alternative to bleach is 2% or 4% hydrogen peroxide.

5. Ventilate to reduce gases from building materials and household chemicals. The building materials in our homes, such as drywall and paint, constantly emit gases known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs. And we often store household chemicals under our sink or in the garage, and these too emit harmful VOCs.

Of course it's a good idea to reduce the inventory of these products if possible. But when it's not, the next best strategy is ventilation. Running kitchen and exhaust fans is a start. But also check to see whether your house has adequate ventilation.

Follow these 5 simple steps and your home will be healthier. Remember, good indoor air quality is not about a house, it's about the people who live in it. A healthier home means a healthier you!