key ways to improve air quality in your home and office:
Control Your Contaminates - Six ways to reduce air quality contamination inside your home or office:
1. Let the sun shine on your activities.
- When participating in activities that produce high levels of pollutants in your home, garage, or office—i.e. painting—go outside.
2. Stay on top of it.
- Keep all of fuel burning appliances—i.e. furnaces,fireplaces, water heaters, and gas stoves— maintained and working properly and efficiently.
3. Resource alternatives.
- Many home products—i.e. paints, cleaning products,insulation, and carpets—can contain harmful pollutants that can be replaced with low emission alternatives.
4. Get in and go
- Avoid idling cars and lawn mowers inside your garage as the exhaust emitted by engines contain a number of pollutants contributing to air pollution.
5. Wring out your homes moisture
- Controlling the humidity levels in your house is very important in preventing any dampness that allows mold to grow. Keeping your fish tank closed, maintaining your humidifiers and preventative maintenance when a flood or leak occurs.
6. Butt out indoors
- Choose wisely where you light up as tobacco smoke releases high levels of pollutants indoors.
It Pays to Ventilate
Windows and doors are a cost effective way to ventilate your home. Ventilation indoors is important as it brings in outside air removing the stale and contaminated air; therefore, reducing your indoor air pollutants. Ways to increase the turn-over of air in your home and office:
- Turn on your kitchen/bathroom exhaust fans
- Choose new mechanical ventilation systems (HVAC) which will:
- Bring in fresh air from outside
- Vent the stale air outside
- Circulate air
- Control the humidity levels and temperature
Purify the Air
Important: Most air cleaners are not built to remove gases. All three steps should be taken to ensure good indoor air quality for you, your family, and your co-workers.
- Types of air cleaners available:
- Electronic air cleaners
- Mechanical filters
- Ion generators
- Hybrid models
Health Risks
Understanding Your Pollution: Focusing on health, gases and particles have been found to attribute to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Together they are called smog. There are two main sources of air pollutants. They can be defined as biological and chemical pollutants.
- Biological pollutants can be described as living organisms like mould and dust mites.
- Chemical pollutants are gases and chemicals that are released from combustion, tobacco smoke, various building materials, household and personal care products, and outdoor air.
- Exposure time
- Health status
- Genetic background
- The concentration of pollutants
Impacts:
- Breathing difficulty
- Respiratory irritation
- Worsening of existing chronic diseases
- Increase of emergency room visits, hospitaladmissions, and death.





