The Health Risks Of Indoor Air Pollution #GreenEnvironmentPollution

The Health Risks Of Indoor Air Pollution #GreenEnvironmentPollution

Unless you are living in the forests somewhere in some remote location, you are definitely impacted by indoor air pollution. You would be astonished at how many chemicals you inhale along with each breath in your home! One of the obvious situations is those unfortunates who are allergic to some type of particle in the air such as pollen.

Air pollution is a hidden danger because we aren't necessarily aware of it unless the particles are large enough to be visible. The air may seem perfectly OK but may hide numerous tiny particles which are injurious to health. The trouble with modern manufacturing is that lots of furnishings and household products give off toxic volatile organic compounds into the home, making it more polluted than outdoors.

The first obvious way to tackle this problem is to make sure you let the outside air into your home. Either open the windows regularly or use ventilation grids. In colder climates, people tend not to ventilate enough for obvious reasons.

An integrated solution for your entire house is to install an air purification system into your furnace or air conditioning system. One issue with this solution is that it assumes that all the contaminated air is coming from your furnace or air conditioning system which is not always the case.

You can't fill a glass that's already full. In the same way, it's futile trying to clean the air before you remove the sources of pollution. It's like trying to get rid of smoke while someone continues to smoke a cigarette in the room. Get rid of your toxic household cleaners and replace them with environmentally friendly ones. When buying anything new such as furniture, try to get natural materials that won't give off toxic gases.

Gases and particles are the two main kinds of air pollution. A few examples of particles are tobacco smoke, dust mite droppings and herbicides.

The sizes of particles in the air differ greatly from as little as 0.001 micron (pesticides and herbicides) to as large as 300 microns (dust). Below 40 microns the particles are invisible and above that size we can see them.

Ideally, you need to capture the smallest particle possible along with your air purifier. You will discover two possible approaches: a mechanical filter or an electrostatic cleaning technique. One of the most common mechanical filter is usually a HEPA filter which can capture particles down to a size of 0.3 microns.

Many items in your house or office may give off gases. Examples are carpeting and rugs, furnishings, cosmetics, household cleaners and paints. Just about the most hazardous sources of gases is any kind of combustion process such as burning candles and using a gas stove.

The mechanical air filters can never capture gaseous pollutants. Individual gas molecules are in the range 0.0002 to 0.001 microns. Gaseous pollutants can be captured by adsorption using chemical air purifiers of which the most typical is activated carbon. You require a large surface area for this to be effective. One pound of activated carbon has a surface area of around 125 acres. A good purifier should have pounds of carbon. Some models use a mix of carbon and potassium permanganate.

If you see that the unit includes a thin carbon filter, you can be assured that it isn't going to have sufficient carbon to significantly filter gaseous pollutants and volative organic compounds.

What are the health problems caused by indoor air pollution? There are both short term effects and long term effects. Short term effects are conditions like allergic reactions which appear to become more and more common. Even people who aren't allergic can be irritated by pollutants in the air. Their eyes, nose and throat can be inflamed. Longer term effects are as severe as cancer of the lung and heart problems. A great deal depends on the exact pollutants. The effects of tobacco smoke in producing lung cancer are well known. A great deal of research is going on nowadays into the effects on health of the very small particles and gaseous pollutants which cause indoor air pollution.

Source: Maximilian Pross