We spend a substantial percentage of time indoors. Between the workplace, home, shopping, entertainment, etc., we can spend as much as 90% of our time in a building. On average, we spend 50% of our time at home.
Recent studies have shown that indoor environments can contain a range of harmful pollutants including mould, radon, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and that old classic, cigarette smoke.
While there is not much you can do about air quality in most of the public buildings you frequent, you can easily make changes to improve the air quality in your home.
There are three steps you need to look at:
- Eliminate
- products that give off gases: treated drapes, vinyl, plastic, composite wood, etc.
- chemical cleaners
- paint and solvents—store them in a shed or garage, away from the house.
- Standard air fresheners
- cigarette smoke
- Ventilate
- make sure your home has adequate ventilation
- make sure the fans exhaust to the outdoors and not into the attic or back into the room
- run bathroom and kitchen fans for 20 minutes after showering or cooking
- Filter
- Make sure you have good furnace filters and change them regularly
- Use the kitchen exhaust fan while cooking to eliminate grease and clean the filters regularly
- Regularly change or clean vacuum bags and filters