How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect Our Health in Seneca Gardens, KY?
As a resident of Seneca Gardens, KY, you should always be looking out for your indoor air quality. Are your filters and HVAC systems working at their highest efficiency? Here are several reasons monitoring your indoor air quality is critical, especially if you want your home to be a haven.
Why Is Indoor Air Quality So Important?
While some of us might consider ourselves to be quite outdoorsy, we typically spend 90% of our time indoors, according to an article published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Unfortunately, poor indoor air quality is responsible for millions of deaths each year due to a long list of pollutants. For example, when inspecting indoor air quality, you can encounter contaminants as common as cigarette smoke or ones that are much more dangerous, like carbon monoxide or radon.
Pollutants You May Encounter Indoors
The list of potential pollutants is far-reaching. Here are some pollutants that might be in your home:
- Dust, pollen and pet dander: These are the most common and cause issues for people suffering from seasonal allergies.
- Particles generated from cooking or heating: The World Health Organization reports that 3.8 million deaths a year result from household pollutants, which include smoke from cooking and incomplete combustion of heating fuels.
- Tobacco smoke: This smoke releases traces of carbon monoxide into the air.
- Building materials: These include asbestos, lead or chemical off-gassing from pressed wood products.
All these potential pollutants can significantly degrade your home’s indoor air quality. This is why it’s important to have a specialist help you tackle them.
Mild Symptoms of Poor Indoor Air Quality
When your indoor air quality is low, several symptoms may pop up. For example, if you or anyone in your home is experiencing a runny nose, coughing or irritation of the eyes, nose or throat, then you may have issues with the air quality in your home. Outdoor air climate or weather conditions typically trigger these symptoms, which may result from particulate matter such as pollen, dust or animal dander.
Major Symptoms of Poor Indoor Air Quality
Typically, major symptoms are a direct result of exposure to chemicals, gasses or spores that may have worked their way into your environment. Potential symptoms for these include headaches, dizziness, fatigue and eye irritation. Increasingly serious health effects may include respiratory diseases, heart disease and even cancer.
Why Does Air Pollution Affect Only Some People?
Similar to just about any health issue or occupational illness, some people won’t develop the same symptoms as others when exposed to poor air quality. This varies from person to person because some may be more sensitive or have greater exposure to airborne contaminants. A general rule of thumb is that the more people who experience symptoms, the more serious the indoor air quality issue is.
How a Well-Maintained HVAC System Can Help
It’s important to tackle any indoor air quality issues that may occur in your home, especially since long-term issues typically can result in health problems. If you or anyone you live with is experiencing coughing, respiratory problems or a high incidence of dust or dander, then a trained HVAC specialist can help.
By simply performing a tune-up, HVAC specialists can help your system run more efficiently and filter out any harmful contaminants that make it into the air you breathe. HVAC systems can become homes for bacteria or fungi, so help from a specialist can contribute to the overall good health of your household.
Symptoms of poor indoor air quality are numerous, so it’s important to remain vigilant. Contact our team at One Choice Mechanical, LLC to schedule an appointment or find out more about our preventive HVAC maintenance plan. You deserve the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re breathing the healthiest air possible in your Seneca Gardens, KY home.
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