Improve Air Quality at Home

It’s easy to see when you need to sweep, swab, and dust your home. However, it’s harder to tell when the air in your home needs cleaning. The un-purified air that you breathe indoors, can be hazardous to your health without any telltale signs. The need to improve air quality becomes even more prominent if a family member suffers from asthma. Indoor air can be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air and now that we spend all our time at home, it’s important to ensure our family’s safety.

Here are some simple ways to ensure the best quality indoor air:

Purify Your Home Air

Cleanse your lungs by improving the air quality in your home. Add Air Purifiers – this can help reduce some of the tiniest airborne particles and in turn reduce indoor air pollution. Air Purifiers actively work on removing pollutants like dust, bacteria, virus, PM2 and help people breathe cleaner air. If you’re looking to reduce the toxins at home, indoor air-cleaning plants can also do the trick for you. Here is a list of plants that purify your home’s air magically.

Ventilate, Ventilate, Ventilate

Fresh air ventilation of your home keeps the air healthy indoors and is one of the best ways to protect the air in your home. The cause for dampness and growth of mold in a house is due to high levels of moisture. This in turn contributes to wheezing, coughing, allergy, and asthma attacks. Ventilation helps to prevent incidences of mildew and dampness, so houses stay fresh and their inhabitants are happier. In addition to ventilation, natural light is a great disinfectant – it reduces the bacteria in the air and dust mites growing in your home.

Cooking

Cooking can also be a source of indoor air pollution – especially if you have a gas stove which most of our homes in India do. Scientists who measured indoor air quality concluded that cooking a meal on a propane and natural gas stoves can produce harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and other harmful pollutants into the air, which can be toxic to people and pets. By increasing the ventilation in your kitchen, you can lower concentrations of cooking emissions in the air. You can easily increase ventilation by:

• Switching to an electric stove
• Installing a cooking chimney or range hood
• Using an exhaust fan
• Open doors and windows completely including those in the adjacent area

Say Goodbye to Artificial Scents

To think you’re helping the quality of air in your home by making it smell nice is a big misconception. Air fresheners, scented candles, incense sticks, and wax candle warmers are often full of harmful chemicals that can cause irritation to your lungs. Household cleaners that are scented can also act as irritants so try and replace your cleaners with all-natural scents and detergents.

Know Your Dust Mites

Dust allergies in effect mean being allergic to dust mites. Dust mites are microscopic pests that survive and grow in moisture. They feed on human skin and live in bedding, pillows, stuffed toys, upholstery, carpets, and so on. Aid better respiratory health and rid your home of dust mites by:

• Vacuum your home regularly
• Steam clean upholstered furniture
• Wash all linen in hot water
• Keep the humidity levels below 50%

You can do this by making sure your home doesn’t have mold, has proper ventilation, and by using a dehumidifier.

Safeguard Your Home From Smoke

As we know, indoor air pollutants can be extremely harmful to respiratory health. Among the most dangerous is secondhand smoke. Every year, thousands of children fall sick with respiratory tract infections and this also puts older adults at higher risk for lung illnesses. Be it, family members or guests, ensure they smoke outside of your home or on the balcony. This doesn’t just apply to the smoke from cigarettes so try and ensure that all religious ceremonies like Poojas and Havans take place on a balcony or in open areas of your home.

Indoor air quality can affect our mental and physical well-being. The benefits of having good levels of air in our homes include better health, increased concentration, and peace of mind.