Healthy Byte - Clean Up Indoor Air

Healthy Child
Thursday, July 31, 2008

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air quality is one of the top five environmental health concerns. Given that people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, it's important to do what you can to reduce indoor air pollution.

One of the simplest things you can do is open a window. Even if it's chilly outside, you should open a window for just five minutes a day to significantly decrease the concentrations of indoor air pollutants in your home. Most home heating and cooling systems, including forced air heating systems, do not mechanically bring fresh air into the house. Open a window and start breathing cleaner air.

Posted by  on  09/07  at  03:06 PM

I agree that our indoor air is not of good quality, but I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and almost every time I open my windows, some chemical, whether that be lawncare products or someone’s dryer sheet chemicals, etc., comes in and I end up ill.  I have tried several air purifiers and even react to them.  And so I just wanted to comment that, although this sounds like a great idea, it doesn’t work for everyone.

Posted by Stephanie  on  09/08  at  09:11 PM

One way to clean up the air quality of your home is to use tried, true and trusted products that are made with the same purpose in mind.  I’ve converted my home to Melaleuca products (Melaleuca.com for info) and my husband no longer has those chemical sensitive problems inside our home.  I also am not being exposed to the poor air quality as I would be with traditional home products as I am a homeschooling mom.  My daughter’s asthma is now completely under control as well.  I can’t say enough about the conversion benefits.  I too love to get fresh air!

Posted by Janelle Sorensen  on  09/09  at  10:32 AM

Good point, Mary! As with most any public health recommendation, there are always subsets of the population that need more personalized advice. As you point out, people with MCS cannot simply open a window to freshen indoor air (you also probably have much cleaner indoor air than most!)

Another group that would have to take this advice with a grain of salt are those who live by major roadways or industrial facilities.

Posted by  on  09/19  at  07:31 PM

Does anybody know of services that will test the indoor quality of air?  We live in Los Angeles near the 10 and the 405 and I’m worried about the quality of the air when I leave the windows open :/

We just moved in and we’re finding that the floors are always leaving our feet dirty - I just hope that isn’t what I’m breathing!

Thanks!

Posted by Janelle Sorensen  on  09/22  at  11:43 AM

Hi Bennette -
It’s wise for you to be concerned about your air quality when you live near major highways. My general recommendation would be to keep windows facing the highway closed except for times when there isn’t much traffic (maybe in the middle of the night). Unfortunately, what’s on your floors is an indicator of what’s in your air.

For help finding someone to test your air and for answering your questions in general, I would advise contacting the EPA’s Indoor Air Quality office at

Indoor Air Quality Information (IAQ INFO) Hotline
P.O. Box 37133
Washington, DC 20013-7133
1-800-438-4318
(703) 356-5386 (fax)

Call-back service that operates Monday to Friday from 9a.m. to 5p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Let us know if you have any other questions!