Resources

Source Control
The starting point for a home indoor air quality strategy is source control. Control a pollutant before it becomes airborne and you’re ahead of the game. Source control strategies include the use of low emission paints, varnishes, and carpeting, no smoking indoors, no pets indoors, maintaining optimum humidity levels, regular cleaning, and regular servicing of combustion appliances, such as furnaces. Unfortunately, you cannot always control pollutant sources. Use your air conditioner to control humidity in the summer and a duct mounted humidifier in the winter.

Ventilation
According to the EPA, the air inside your home is far worse than outside air. Yet, when it’s really hot or really cold, who’s going to open the windows? It’s uncomfortable and unaffordable. There is a solution for some homes that improves fresh ventilation without the comfort or energy costs. It’s called an energy recovery ventilator. Not only can it improve air quality, it can actually reduce utilities in certain circumstances.

Air Cleaning
The third way to fight indoor air pollution is air cleaning. Avoid tabletop and gadget air cleaners. According to an American Lung Association® report, “The reviewed data provide little reason to endorse the use of inexpensive tabletop, appliance-type air cleaners, regardless of the technology they employ. In general, high-efficiency particle collection requires larger filters or electronic air cleaners.”

A whole-house approach with a duct mounted UV light and either a HEPA filtration system or an electronic air cleaner is recommended. The correct prescription for your home depends on your budget, comfort system, and family.

In the past 20 years, an emerging and expanding body of evidence has shown that indoor air quality has tremendous impact on human health. Americans-especially infants, the elderly, and persons with chronic diseases-typically spend 90% of their time indoors where they can be exposed to very high levels of air pollutants.

Air cleaning is recognized as one of the three strategies to improve indoor air quality and has become increasingly popular as specific populations of individuals attempt to improve the air quality in their residences and immediate environs to relieve symptoms associated with various diseases such as asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, and allergic respiratory disease.