Friday, December 18, 2009

Breathe Freely in Your Home

Indoor Air Quality/Ductwork

Is my home making me sick?

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a term referring to the air quality within your home, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of your family. IAQ is one of the top five health concerns of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their findings have been supported by the American Lung Association, Harvard University studies and many other organizations concerned about our health and indoor air environment.

Since the early 70’s, homes have been built tighter to conserve energy by keeping cold air out in the winter and hot air out in the summer. While this does conserve energy, it also contributes to ‘Tight Home Syndrome’. Tight Home Syndrome locks in dirty, sick and stale air and contributes to indoor air pollution. This indoor air pollution has been categorized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) into three danger levels; Particles, Germs and Gases, and most often can contain microbialcontaminants, such as mold and bacteria, gases (including carbon monoxide, radon, volatile organic compounds), dust, pollen and much more that can induce adverse health conditions. According to the EPA, your indoor air is typically 2 – 5 times and can be up to 100 times more polluted than outside air. Much of this pollution comes from toxic off gassing from carpets, building material, paint, stain, cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, bug sprays and more. Although we continue to pollute outside air it is cleansed by Mother Nature with the weather, ionization and UV energy from the sun. These natural cleansing actions are not present indoors and our immune system cannot keep up with this over abundance of indoor air pollution. The American Lung Association estimates that most people spend 90% of their time indoors breathing ultra fine particles, germs and gases that pass through our lungs and enter the bloodstream. These are the main causes of asthma, allergies and other ailments so, paying special attention to cleaning your indoor air is very important.

For more information visit Nature's Home: www.4natureshome.com

For questions contact Jim at: jim.wilson@onehourair.com

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