Everyone deserves to come home to a warm, safe and healthy environment. However, there can be some items in your home that are currently causing respiratory discomfort without you realizing it. A wide range of items – from furniture to cleaning supplies – release chemicals or store allergens, affecting the air inside buildings. These pollutants can bring a mere discomfort, worsen allergy conditions or even lead to a chronic respiratory disease.
Let’s look at why certain available products and items could interfere with the quality of your breath. We will also give valuable recommendations on how to make the air in the home better and cleaner.
Understanding Indoor Air Quality
Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) defines home air quality. Healthy IAQ means the absence of air pollutants and the ability to breathe fresh air. However, most homes contain many products that emit chemicals or detain allergens, making them poor indoor air quality.
Why Poor IAQ Affects Breathing:
● Chemical exposure: By emitting gases from furniture, paints, or even cleaning products and solvents, VOCs can irritate your respiratory system.
● Allergens: Common allergens include dust mites, molds, and pet dander, which tend to settle indoors.
● Inadequate ventilation: Lack of ventilation makes the pollutants accumulate in the room, making breathing more difficult.
Enhancing IAQ is crucial for your health if you and your family have asthma or other chronic respiratory diseases.
List of Household Items That Affect Your Breathing
1. Furniture and Upholstery
Indoor air pollution is a common problem, and furniture plays a role in polluting it. Some emit VOCs, such as formaldehyde, even though most are produced from engineered wood. These chemicals can take years to circulate in the air, making breathing uncomfortable.
Why Furniture Impacts Breathing:
● Formaldehyde emissions: The compounds bonding the particle boards and plywood emit formalin, a known respiratory irritant.
● Dust accumulation: Soft furniture like sofas and carpets become breeding grounds for dust and other allergens.
How to Address This Issue:
● Select wooden furniture rather than those made of particle boards.
● Air purifiers must be used to eliminate VOCs and other allergens from the air.
● Consult with professional services for formaldehyde removal to reduce dangerous emissions.
2. Carpets and Rugs
Carpets and rugs make your home comfortable, but they are one of the primary reasons your home’s air is unhealthy. These substantially collect dust, pet dander, and other allergens that make an individual uncomfortable breathing.
Why Carpets Are Problematic:
● Allergen buildup: They are pests, especially seen in carpets, resulting in allergies and asthma among people.
● Chemical treatments: Anti-stain, anti-mold and anti-bacterial coatings may emit VOCs.
How to Minimize Risks:
● Clean vacuum carpets frequently with a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner.
● Rugs and mats should be washed often to reduce the amount of allergens likely to accumulate in the house.
● Choose carpets with a low VOC emissions level or those not treated with any chemical.
3. Cleaning Products
The majority of cleaning supplies used at home are products that have toxic substances in them. Though they clean surfaces very well in most cases, they emit uncomfortable fumes that affect your breathing system.
Common Offenders:
● Bleach and ammonia: These chemicals, when inhaled, can lead to coughing and throat irritation.
● Air fresheners: Many of them contain phthalates, which can hinder human healthy breathing.
Tips for Safer Cleaning:
● Natural cleaning products like vinegar and baking soda should be used.
● Avoid using products that use aerosols; use liquid or solid types instead.
● It may come with unpleasant fumes, hence the need to ensure sufficient air circulation when cleaning.
4. Paints and Coatings
Brand-new walls appear clean and smooth, but the smell of fresh paint conceals fresh VOCs. It means that exposure to these chemicals will eventually affect your breathing comfort.
Why Paints Affect Air Quality:
● VOCs in paints and finishes become a gas and irritate the respiratory system.
● During the drying process, some fumes may take days or weeks to disappear from the air.
Solutions:
● Use paints with low volumes of VOC, or, if possible, use those with no VOC content when painting your home.
● Ensure that the areas painted have proper ventilation before people occupy the space.
● The air purifiers that utilize activated carbon filters should be used for paint fumes.
5. Mold and Mildew
Relative humidity creates a high probability of mold and mildew formation, which releases spores into the air. These spores can easily be inhaled, but they can trigger allergies and breathing difficulties.
Where Mold Grows:
● Bathrooms and kitchens: Rooms more prone to retaining moisture include high-risk sources of mold growth.
● HVAC systems: The mold can initially grow inside the ducts and circulate throughout your house.
Prevention Tips:
● Maintain the indoor relative humidity level to 50% or below using a window dehumidifier.
● It is essential to repair a leak immediately so that water does not seep through walls and floors.
● Treat mold with vinegar solution on the affected surfaces.
6. Cooking and Kitchen Appliances
Smoke and grease particles are produced during cooking and hinder comfort in breathing. Moreover, store-bought gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide, which is a pollutant.
Kitchen Air Quality Concerns:
● Cooking oils and fats release particulate matter into the air when they become hot.
● Kitchens with low ventilation entail these pollutants’ concentration, raising the exposure levels.
How to Improve Kitchen IAQ:
● Fix a range hood of an external fan type to collect the pollutants.
● Exhaust fans should be switched on during and after preparing food.
● The best way of preventing smoke is by not frying foods at high temperatures.
7. Air Fresheners and Candles
Using air fresheners and scented candles makes the environment fragrant but negatively affects air quality. Most of them have synthetic colors or perfumes and paraffin wax that, when burned, emit dangerous chemicals.
Problems with Fragranced Products:
● VOCs and soot particles irritate the lungs.
● Synthetic fragrances could lead to discomfort or even allergies.
Alternatives:
● Employ essential oils to enhance the ambiance of the room.
● Paraffin can be replaced with soy or bee’s wax candles.
● To remove stale smells in rooms, it is recommended to open windows and doors more often.
8. Pet Dander and Hair
Pets are excellent associates, but their dander and hair pose air quality problems. These particles become airborne and may cause discomfort, especially for those with breathing difficulties and allergies.
Managing Pet Allergens:
● Groom pets regularly to minimize shedding.
● Employ air purifiers to reduce dander particles so those affected can easily breathe.
● Avoid the physical contact of pets in the bedroom during sleep to minimize exposure to dust.
9. HVAC Systems and Air Filters
It is also important to note that the HVAC system influences indoor air quality. But if the system’s filters and ducts are dirty, contaminants will likely spread across the house.
Maintenance Tips:
● Air filters should be replaced every 1 to 3 months at the most.
● Cleaning of ducts should be done annually to get rid of dust accumulation.
● Choose an appropriate high-efficiency filter capable of capturing small pollutants; invest in HEPA filters.
10. Indoor Plants
Indoor plants purify the air by taking in CO2. However, flooding them with water can result in mold formation. This eliminates their function of purifying the air and could sway breathing at ease.
Best Practices for Plant Care:
● Avoid overwatering your plant, and water only when the soil has dried; you prefer well-draining soil.
● Do not grow plants in areas that are surrounded by high humidity.
● Low-maintenance plants such as snake plants or peace lilies should be chosen.
Steps to Improve Breathing Comfort at Home
Maintaining comfort and achieving clean indoor air means taking anticipatory actions. Here’s a quick checklist to improve your home environment:
● Increase ventilation: Use windows or exhaust fans daily.
● Control humidity: Try to maintain humidity at 30% – 50%.
● Eliminate sources of VOCs: Get rid of high-emission products and instead use safer ones.
● Use air purifiers: Look for models with HEPA and activated carbon filters whenever possible.
● Maintain cleanliness: Proper cleaning of the surfaces, floor carpets, and all the furniture used in the house should be done frequently.
Conclusion
It is quite apparent that household products can directly influence your breathing quality through the air pollution inside the home. These offenders are traces of volatile organic compounds in furniture and dust mites collected in carpets, which can lead to breathing problems and even chronic health conditions. Overcoming these problems is simple but depends on being aware of and acting on the issue.
If you want the indoor environment to be healthier, you should consider purchasing things such as air purifiers, cleaning often, and hiring professional services. Following all these steps, you can take a deep breath and enjoy cleaner air in your home or workplace.