Why monitoring indoor air quality is important! |
Posted: July 14, 2017 |
If you think that the outdoor air alone is polluted and makes you sick, think again. It may come as a shock to many that the indoor air is equally if not more contaminated in most homes and offices. And what is more alarming is that we the city dwellers spend almost ninety percent of our times breathing indoors. In effect, we are breathing toxic, stale unclear air for the most part of the day and that is making us sick. Many symptoms of lethargy, poor cognitive skills, irritation, and giddiness can be traced to the poor air quality indoors. This hidden culprit is all around us making us sick and we don’t even know about it let alone do something about it. Indoor air quality (IAQ) broadly refers to the environmental characteristics inside buildings that may affect human health, comfort, or work performance. We need to monitor indoor air quality because we spend 90% of our time breathing this “indoor air”. In fact, the air indoors is even more dangerous than the air outside. Unlike outdoor air, indoor air is recycled continuously causing it to trap and build up pollutants. indoor air quality characteristics include the concentrations of pollutants in indoor air, as well as air temperature and humidity. Though PM level remains one of the major cause of concern. The particles below PM 2.5 go into our system unfiltered and the body can do nothing about it. The toxicity thus gets into the body just by inhaling bad air. Indeed, poor IAQ contributes to both short and long term health issues which can lead to low productivity, absenteeism and impaired decision making in the office environment. Typical symptoms associated with poor indoor air quality include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headache, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue to the residents in homes and offices. What is more alarming is that prolonged exposure to the toxic air can lead to acute and chronic respiratory illnesses including asthma, lung cancer, pneumonia, systemic hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Legionnaires’ disease, and humidifier fever. Gas and repairable particulates in the air are the primary sources that contribute to poor IAQ. Sources can include inadequate ventilation, poorly maintained HVAC systems, wood and coal stoves, non-vented gas heaters, environmental tobacco smoke, proximity to a busy road leading to vehicle exhaust emissions, building materials, carpeting, furniture, maintenance products, solvents, cleaning supplies etc. The list is endless so are the diseases and ill effects of inhaling the toxic air that is contaminated with bacteria, molds, harmful chemicals, and minute dust and smoke particles and so on. The actual concentrations of these pollutants can also be amplified by other external factors including poor ventilation, humidity, and temperature. Once the reading from the best indoor air quality monitor like Laser Egg is analyzed, they can be used to chalk out the strategy to counter the toxic air in your premises. Indeed based on the data generated by the air monitoring device one could buy an affordable air purifier that would use various filters to clean the air and bring it down to the permissible limits. The right time to buy the indoor affordable air purifier is now. Each passing day is taking away your health and the health of your loved ones. So think of clean air. Think of good health. Make a beginning today by start monitoring your indoor air right from today!
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