The indoor air quality of your home, or “IAQ,” can be affected by numerous factors. Indoor air quality problems can be detrimental to both your health and comfort in the long term.

However, before discussing how to improve your indoor air quality, we’ll go over what factors affect indoor air quality. These indoor air pollutants can affect your living environment and can potentially damage your health.

Indoor Air Pollution

It’s important to consider what indoor factors affect indoor air quality as most air pollutants originate indoors. The most common indoor pollutants include:

• Building materials (flooring, carpet, cabinetry)
• Insulation containing asbestos
• Tobacco smoke/products
• Dust mites
• Water-damaged materials
• Cleaning products
• Combustion appliances

Outdoor Air Pollution

When discussing what factors affect indoor air quality, it’s essential to discuss the outdoor pollutants. These outdoor sources can enter homes and other buildings through infiltration, ventilation systems, and open windows. Outdoor air pollutants include:

• Smoke
• Volatile chemicals
• Pesticides
• Radon

How Poor Air Quality Affects Your Health

Before discussing how to improve indoor air quality, it’s essential to discuss the health problems linked to poor air quality. Health effects can range from asthma and allergies to respiratory diseases, heart disease, and cancer.

Tobacco smoke and other pollutants can cause asthma, allergies, and other respiratory issues. Cleaning products or items like paint strippers and spray paints contain chemicals that release volatile organic compounds. Many organic compounds are known to cause cancer in animals.

Radon is a radioactive gas and substance of natural origin. This gas can enter buildings through cracks and other gaps in your home’s structure and foundation. It’s worth noting that the second leading cause of lung cancer is radon.

Additionally, unvented combustion appliances that burn fuel can release carbon monoxide into the air. These appliances include space heaters, ovens, and gas stoves.

Low concentrations of carbon monoxide, which is a colorless and odorless gas, can cause several symptoms. These symptoms include nausea, headaches, and dizziness. However, high concentrations of the gas can cause unconsciousness or even death.

How to Recognize Poor Air Quality

Looking at your health can be one way to identify what factors are affecting indoor air quality. For instance, you or others may experience immediate health effects, including headaches or eye irritation in a building. If these symptoms go away after leaving the space, it can indicate poor air quality and pollution.

You can also try to identify sources of air pollution in your home. Additionally, consider assessing your home activities and home ventilation.

How to Improve Indoor Air Quality

The best way to prevent adverse health effects is knowing how to improve indoor air quality. First, eliminate sources of pollution once you identify them. When you understand what factors are affecting indoor air quality, you can take action to stop them. For instance, adjust the emissions on combustion appliances or eliminates sources that contain asbestos.

Also, proper ventilation in your home can help improve poor indoor air quality. Find ways to increase the amount of outdoor air circulating into your home. Consider opening windows or using air conditioners. Air conditioning can bring fresh air into your home.

Air cleaners also remove pollutants from your home. However, it’s worth noting that not all air cleaners remove identical amounts of pollutants. Air purifiers remove some indoor pollutants by capturing and filtering the particles.

Contact us for air purification systems such as air purifiers in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas.

For more ways to improve the air quality in your home, reach out to the pros at Whipple Service Champions today. As IAQ specialists in Salt Lake City, our technicians will help keep your air safe and clean.