How to Improve Air Quality in Your Home Here are some mind-blowing facts about the quality of your indoor air you probably hadn’t the slightest idea about. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the USA ranks your IAQ as one of the top five risk factors for your health. Studies that have been conducted in the past have shown that the concentration of pollutants indoors is typically about 5 times greater than those outdoors. At its worst, these pollution levels went up to 100 times higher than their outdoor counterparts. Your Furniture May be the Most Dangerous Culprit If you have furniture that you bought before the year 2006, you’re probably at risk. Back then (and even today) furniture is coated with a special fireproof paint. This sometimes contains chemicals called PBDEs, which could release toxic chemical fumes into the air in small amounts over time. Some of these are known carcinogens. Advances in technology and chemistry have not, unfortunately, led to safer chemicals being introduced to the furniture industry. For more information check out our post on how to get rid of new furniture smell Candles are One of the Bigger Culprits For IAQ Everyone loves burning a scented candle while going about their day or evening. Exercise caution when buying one, though. In addition to the wax they are made of, any scented candle contains benzene and toluene. These are both known to be cancer-causing chemicals or carcinogens. Burning a candle also releases hydrocarbons similar to the exhaust smoke of a vehicle into the air. A safe bet to maintain the air quality in your home is too shy away from scented candles and this includes those that contain essential oils for scents and artificial scents as well. Your Printer Could Be Killing Your Fertility Do you have a printer at home? For most people, the common printer type is an inkjet printer. All inkjet type printers contain chemicals that can be emitted into your indoor air, in addition, these very same chemicals and VOcs have been linked by the EPA to cause damage to the reproductive system due to long-term exposure. If you print your documents out regularly, you stand at risk of having your fertility impacted by these chemicals. One of the best things you could do to avoid this is to get yourself a laser printer or to simply get all your printing done at a store instead. School Isn’t as Healthy as it Seems Did you know that the IAQ at a school is far worse than it is in an office building? Schools are buildings designed to fit as many people into them as possible. It is a fact that there can be up to four times as many students as office workers per square unit of floor space. Children tend to breathe faster and deeper than adults. Studying in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time reduces the quality of the air so much that it is one of the main points of concern for the EPA and other government societies. Your Asthma Takes a Big Hit with Poor Air Quality Ever since asthma became an identified condition, and since the industrial revolution, people have been experiencing this respiratory condition in larger numbers every year. There is no discrimination with a disease like this. It can occur in adults and children of all nations, ethnicities, and social classes. It is, in every sense of the word, an epidemic. While it is rarely fatal, the only treatment is to reduce the onset of “attacks.” is to improve the indoor air quality in your home and reduce triggers that can lead to an asthma attack.If your home or office has poor IAQ, these attacks become way more frequent, especially in children. Your Grandparents Take the Brunt of it The elderly are among the most likely to contract one of the many serious effects of exposure to poor indoor air. This is because of the inordinate amounts of time they spend indoors when co...