When Was The Last Time You Thought About Air Quality?

For me, it’s been fairly recent – but this surprised me. So, a couple of weeks ago, when school started the blog delved into the air quality at our schools and how children are susceptible to breathing in toxins that shouldn’t be in the air. That article, by the EPA called schools to action to begin implementation of ways to better their indoor air quality. The website CSREES.usda.gov is a governmental site devoted to educating consumers in various fields from agriculture to bio-technology. An article, located at: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/family/in_focus/housing_if_epa.html cautioned Americans about the quality of the air INSIDE their homes. Since 1995, the EPA began a consumer education program to teach about the potential problems of indoor air quality. (big news, apparently, since I am personally just hearing about it now…)

Indoor air quality remains a widespread concern. Because the American public spends most of its time indoors, indoor air quality is a serious issue. While more information is needed about pollutant exposures and their effects in indoor environments, national studies have shown that levels of some pollutants indoors can be much higher than outdoor levels. Two indoor air pollutants of particular concern are radon and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), the latter especially for children. We are achieving decreases in exposure to ETS.

Air conditioners and heating units offer an interesting solution to this problem. Many of the companies providing these units also offer some sort of dehumidification/filtration systems. The more expensive models will even electrically remove pollutants from the air. If you are one of those people who doesn’t open windows much, or has animals, this might be an option for you. It’s always nice to get clean air cycling through the house. And I suppose it would be nice to know that this filtration system would take care of that for you with little effort on your part. Regularly changing the filters in your own ac system will not only cut down on the pollutants cycling in your own home, but also help your unit to run more efficiently for longer.