Healthy house
Making yourhouse healthy involves thinking about something as basicas the airyou breathe—is it as clean as you think? It’s about taking measures to make thatairas clean as possible—from reducing pollutants to ensuring that yourhome isadequately ventilated and free ofdampness. And it’s about making sure that yourhome environment is comfortably clean and fresh, especially forallergy sufferers.
The airwe breathe
Sources ofpollution outside the house are immediately apparent. Emissions fromcars and factories, forexample, are often visible and may even smell. We like tothink, in contrast, that ourhomes are havens ofpure, clean air. But ourhomes havechanged. Double glazing is more common and drafty windows and doors lesscommon. We seal up the house forenergy efficiency by draft-proofing andinsulation. Central heating has largely replaced open fires, which create a draft oftheirown, continually drawing new fresh airinto the home.Since those ofus in industrialized countries spend somewhere between 75 and 90percent ofourtime indoors, we increasingly rely on the quality ofindoorair. In manyhouses it is not being mixed regularly with airfrom outdoors, fresh orotherwise. Inaddition, new materials forfurnishing and decoration are not always the inertsubstances we believe they are. Many substances send gaseous molecules intothe airin a process called “outgassing.”Although some ofthese are associated onlywith the installation of, say,acarpet, others—such as the glues in particle boardfurniture orurea-formaldehyde foam—continue to emit gases foryears.Paralleling this change in the chemical environmentofourhomes is a rise in a rangeofdiseases and conditions such as allergies, multiple chemical sensitivity, and chronicfatigue syndrome.Whetherornot you are affected by particularchemicals you are exposed to in yourhome orworklife, such as pesticides orformaldehyde, depends on a numberoffactors, including yourimmune system (which may be compromised by lackofsleep,infection, orstress)and the degree ofexposure. People can become used to theirbody’s response to chemicals, but only forso long.The numerous potential sources ofindoorairpollution include cigarette smoke,combustion by-products, biological pollutants, volatile organiccompounds, and anumberofotherchemical pollutants, such as heavy metals and asbestos.
clean sweep
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