Indoor air pollution - how bad is it really? And what you can do about it

Did you think air pollution was a problem you could keep outside the door? We all know about car exhausts and acid rain and big city smog. After a long day out in town, we come back inside and feel safe. However, air pollution is much more than just an outdoors issue. The EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) states that the indoor environment is two to five times more toxic than the outdoor one, or in some cases, up to 100 times more polluted. And these toxins take their toll, causing a whole range of problems from allergies to cancer, from asthma to autism, from skin problems to decreased fertility.

Causes of indoor air pollution

There are a lot of contributors to indoor toxins. But one of main the reasons they are allowed to accumulate so much in our homes, is lack of ventilation. Especially in winter time, when we keep our windows closed. So no matter what the outside conditions are, be smart about ventilating your home. The best way to allow fresh air without allowing the temperature to drop too much, is by opening your windows wide, all of them, and let the fresh air sweep in for a few minutes. In contrast to what many people think, ventilating in this way allows maximum fresh air with minimum temperature drop, compared to having a window slightly opened all the time.

So where do those indoor toxins come from?

• Household products: there are toxic chemicals in most of the products we use around the home, like washing detergent, dry cleaning solutions, anti-bacterial soaps, window, kitchen and multi-purpose cleaners, air fresheners, and toilet paper. Check out this article on experiencelife.com for details on the chemicals in different household products and great alternative suggestions.

• Furniture: our furniture continuously emits many harmful chemicals. VOC's (volatile organic compounds) are chemicals that become a gas at room temperature, and are in our matresses, in foams, in glues and adhesives. VOC's are linked to cancer and heart and lung disease. One of them is formaldehyde, one the top twenty-five most produced chemicals in the world today, and is used in building materials (plastics, plywood, fiberboard) and household products. VOC's in treated plastics and fabrics, flame retardants in matresses and children's pyjamas, asbestos in insulation, paints and floor tiles - they're all adding to our 'home, sweet home' environment.

By the way, are you thinking 'formaldehyde, formaldehyde... that sounds familiar'? Well, you're right! Formaldehyde as a VOC will turn into gass at room temperature, so open a jar with a frog in your home and you'll see that the liquid evaporates over time. And as it does, you'll have more indoor pollution ;). Formaldehyde impairs the nervous system, causes dizziness, fatigue, headaches, irritates the membranes of the eyes and the respiratory tract, and causes nausea and rashes.

• Cooking and heating: kitchens are a source of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, and many other gases and chemicals. Cooking on a gas stove even once a week can lead to a pollution level which, if found outdoors, would be illegal. Here's an article from Berkeley Lab with more details on cooking and indoor air pollution, and some info on what kind of range hood you require for proper kitchen ventilation. Because again, and especially in your kitchen, ventilation is key.

• Smoking: I'm putting this one towards the end of my list, even though it is a number one problem for indoor pollution, with tobacco smoke containing 200 known poisons and 43 compounds causing cancer. But really, do people smoke inside their homes? Do people smoke? I'm not out to offend anyone, but maybe my guess is that people who want to know more about 'indoor air pollution and what you can do about it' are not your typical smokers. If you are the exception, then my number 1 tip on 'what you can do about it' is don't smoke (indoors).

• Mold: mold is a living organism, and as it 'consumes' food, it produces VOC's. Apart from that, many molds spread chemicals which are meant to keep away competing organisms, like other molds and bacteria - but which can be hazardous for human health also. For preventing the growth of mold in your home, you need to keep humidity down (mold requires water to grow). Ideally humidity levels should be between 30 to 50%, but definitely below 60%. If the mold is already growing, please take care to get it removed! Here's a link to an article on what mold is and does that I found useful: Mold: Volatile Organic Compounds & Mycotoxins

Improving air quality indoors

So, indoor air quality is an issue. It's important because it has so much effect on our health and well-being. And because so many of the products we use (home building materials, furniture, cleaning products) and the habits we have (lack of ventilation, cooking and heating) contribute to toxins in our home environment. If you want to know more details on the relationship between certain chemicals and toxins and health issues and diseases, I found this article very useful. But for now, let's go to the part where we talk about what we can do to improve the air quality in our homes. Expanding on and adding to some of the points already made above.

• Ventilation
  A few important points have already been mentioned. First is properly ventilating your home. This is key, because it's the number one thing you can do to prevent those toxins from accumulating to dangerous levels! Not only toxins, also humidity is managed by proper ventilation. So, get yourself a decent exhaust hood, one that ventilates air from outside, that covers upto the front burners and has a proper airflow. Have a ventilating system for your bathroom and always turn it on when you shower. Be sure to clean the filters on these systems regularly. Apart from that, be sure to ventilate by opening up windows and have fresh air come in.

• Use natural alternatives
  There are a lot of natural products available which work wonderfully and a lot of times, are less costly as well. Make your own cleaning products based on baking soda and vinegar. Get yourself furniture from natural wood. Find out more about materials that contain a lot of toxins and VOC's and find replacements. For example, buy products made from organic cotton, since regular cotton is one of the crops which is most treated with pesticides. Once your interest and awareness for these topics grows, using natural alternatives becomes such an obvious thing to do. Not only for reducing indoor air polution, but also for improving the quality of the food you eat and the products you use on your skin.

• Air cleaners
  You can buy an air cleaner. I'm no expert to tell you if an air cleaner will help you or not. From several articles I read in the course of writing this article, I take that air cleaners aren't all that effective for many of the pollutants indoors, especially gasses but also the pollutants sitting on surfaces. How effective they are, has a lot to do with the method they use and the amount of air that they circulate. To be honest, and as you might have guessed by now, I'm always more a fan of natural alternatives - and nature never lets me down.

• House plants
  Nature is just amazing. I have no other words for it. And the more I look at nature for solutions, the more grateful I feel. Whether it is when I make my own beauty products with only natural, organic ingredients and just feel how my skin is nourished and taken care of so well (here's a recipe for facial skin cream), or I bake my bread with home grown sourdough, absolutely nothing else required but water and flower and some salt - whenever I turn to simple, organic, wholesome solutions I am always rewarded with best quality, best satisfaction, best effects. And well, surprise surprise - when it comes to indoor air quality, here is what will help you most: house plants!

Boston Fern

House plants are decorative, increase the oxygen in your home, help maintain humidity levels, and act as natural air purifiers! Some fancy air-purifying machines produce negative ions, to attach themselves to and remove particles in the air, such as dust, mold spores and bacteria. Plants do this too! These negative ions clean the air, but have also been shown to increase our overall sense of well-being, our psychological health and productivity. There are some house plants that even specialise in naturally filtering pollutants and VOC's, like formaldehyde, and others we didn't explicitly mention above. Many of these plants are very common, you might be having them in your home already, and are very easy to take care of.

Calathea

There is quite an abundance of online articles giving the details of these plants, which pollutants they filter best, and how to take care of them, like this one on allergyandair.com. Or an article comparing plants on their effectiveness, looks and maintenance requirements by welnessmama. When we went to the garden centre for some new plants, they had labels for those plants who are exceptional air purifiers, which I thought was really cool. At that time, we got ourselves a Boston Fern (also great for lowering the humidity in your home, since it sucks the water from the air). And we bought a Calathea, a very pretty plant with beautifully decorated leaves, purple on the downside, and which at night time closes its leaves together and looks like it goes to bed at the same time we do :). And well, we've had Aloe Vera plants around the house for as long as I can remember. But there are more great air purifiers, common lovely easy plants you'd never suspect of being your secret benefactors - like the Peace Lily, the Chrysanthemum, English Ivy, most types of palms, or the Snake Plant.

Aloe Vera

Thank you!

I really have to say - I decided to do a post on this topic because I wanted to know more about indoor air quality, with winter coming up and us having the windows closed. And because those lovely plants we have are like friends and I wanted to know what exactly they are doing to my home environment. And I'm really happy I found out what I did! It's not just information I'm happy to share with you, it's such a fun learning process for myself as well. For example, I've had intentions of using less store bought cleaning products and using natural products instead. But I think writing this article has been enough to finally get me in the mood for actually making that shift. I honestly don't know how many people I'll inspire with this post, you never know on Steemit ;). But at least I've inspired myself, lol. And when I find out more about natural alternatives, I'll let you guys know for sure!

So a big thank you for reading, and for any and all of your support by upvoting and following. Since I'm here for the learning process, your comments are really appreciated - questions you have or anything you know on the topic and want to share. Also, if you have related posts, you're free to share the links below. People have done so before and sometimes apologise, but no need to! So thanks again, and see you around on Steemit!