Your home should be your family’s sanctuary where everyone can feel safe and comfortable. Finding out that the air inside your house is full of contaminants that can make your loved ones sick is a major cause for concern. These are the five most common air pollutants found indoors in Sebastian, FL, and how to get rid of them:
Pollens
Firstly, tree and plant pollens are the most common air contaminants found in Florida. The Sunshine State is home to numerous tree varieties notorious for spreading pollen.
Maple trees, American elms, bluejack oaks, bayberry trees and more cause all kinds of problems when they begin to pollinate. Every breeze picks up these pollens, carrying them into your home through open windows and doors or on clothing.
Pollen also comes from several different types of plants. Grass, ragweed, dock, dog fennel and sorrel are some of the most common offenders.
Once pollen makes its way into your home, it adheres to many surfaces and hides in several places. Furniture, bedding, curtains, toys and even your pets can become contaminated with pollen and will keep releasing it back into the air throughout your home. Installing an air cleaner can help you eliminate pollen and ease allergy symptoms inside your home.
Household Cleaning Products
The products that people use to keep their homes clean also fill it with unhealthy toxins. These include things like volatile organic compounds, which impact indoor air quality. Everything from window cleaners to air fresheners can release chemicals and other types of contaminants into the air. As a result, you and your family inhale them with every breath you take.
Secondhand Cigarette Smoke
Did you know that having one single smoker in your house is just as harmful as if everyone was a smoker? That’s how dangerous secondhand cigarette smoke is. Unfortunately, the danger doesn’t go away when the cigarette is out because the toxic chemicals from the smoke collect on furniture, clothing, walls, carpeting, floors and even in hair.
The smoke from every cigarette smoked in your home will remain in the air for as long as four hours. Even after it has started to dissipate, secondhand cigarette smoke can still cause serious genetic damage to the cells that make up the lining of the airways in the body’s respiratory system. This type of damage is most often permanent and can result in serious chronic health issues. Therefore, it’s best to not smoke. But if you do, step outside to protect your loved ones.
Pet Hair and Dander
Our fur babies are much-loved members of our families. But that doesn’t change the fact that they can have an unhealthy effect on the air quality within the home. Just like humans, animals can have dry, flaky skin that sheds along with their hair, called pet dander.
Pet dander also contains tiny bits of saliva and waste products from your pets, creating some unhealthy contaminants that travel in the air to settle on furniture, floors, tables and countertops. They can also settle inside your home’s air duct system and recirculate around your house.
Biological Contaminants
Any pollutant present in the air outside your home can easily affect indoor air quality by making its way inside via open doors and windows or by hitching a ride on coats, shoes, clothing and hair. This can make for some very poor indoor air quality levels depending on whether the area you live in is near factories, agriculture or busy roads.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that indoor air pollution is often two to five times greater than outdoor pollution in the same area. Depending on the environment where you live, the number can be exponentially higher. That’s an unsettling thought when you study the area where you live and discover the amount and types of pollutants present in the atmosphere.
Improving Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
You want to keep your home and family safe and free from these unhealthy contaminants, so what can you do? By enlisting the help of a reputable HVAC professional, you can rest assured that the most effective and up-to-date methods will remove the pollutants and contaminants from the air inside your home to provide you and your loved ones with clean, purified and healthy air day and night. Contact Barker Air Conditioning and Heating today to learn how we can help with the air quality in your home!
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