How Humidity and Air Quality Improves Family Health

The air quality and humidity level in an indoor environment affect the health and comfort of a home’s occupantssignificantly especially when you are self-isolating. Given that the average person spends about 90% of their time indoors, it’s crucial to understand the importance of maintaining optimal air quality and humidity in your home or office.

Read on to discover how indoor humidity and air quality affect your health.

Keeping Your Respiratory System in Optimal Condition

On average, you inhale and exhale 11,000 liters of air per day. All this air goes through your nostrils, throat, bronchioles, and lungs, implying that inhaling polluted air will potentially cause some irritation or damage to your respiratory system. 

Some of the common health problems associated with breathing polluted air include:

• Cardiovascular illnesses
• Damaged cells
• Stressed, aging, or damaged lungs
• Loss of lung capacity
• Development of respiratory conditions like bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, and possibly cancer

As such, it’s imperative to keep your indoor air clean and fresh at all times.

Reduced Allergic Reactions

Allergies occur when your immune system reacts to the allergens floating in your indoor air. Some common indoor allergens include dust mites, mold spores, pollen, VOCs, and fragrances. While summer and spring are the worst seasons for people with allergies, those living with allergic rhinitis and asthma are at risk of allergic reactions all year round.

To reduce these allergens, you need to improve the quality of your indoor air in the following ways:

• The first step involves opening up the windows to allow efficient circulation of air, which will decrease the allergens significantly

• You may also reduce allergens through aggressive cleaning of all the surfaces in your home or office. Most allergens are found on pets, upholstery, stuffed toys, carpets, and non-encased pillows. When these items are disturbed, especially when sitting, dusting, or walking, the allergens become airborne and end up inside your body when breathing. Therefore, it helps to dust, mop, vacuum, or clean all the surfaces in your home regularly, including your pawed friend’s coat. 

• Other allergens like pollen and dust are carried into your home by the wind. Since this is inevitable, you may utilize air purifiers to clean your indoor atmosphere.

• Dust mites and mold spores are typically brought about by excess humidity in your indoor environment. You will, therefore, want to keep your home’s relative humidity below 50%, which is easily achieved by using a dehumidifier.  

How Indoor Air Quality Affects Your Overall Health

As mentioned above, the air you breathe can affect your overall health, regardless of having allergies or respiratory issues. Some of the common adverse health effects of contaminated air include upper respiratory congestion, chronic cough, watery eyes, fatigue, and headaches. All these issues could lower your quality of life and reduce your productivity. In the worst-case scenario, polluted air, especially when cockroach debris and asbestos are involved, can cause asthma in kids.

How Indoor Moisture Affects Your Overall Health

Apart from the pollutants in the air, relative humidity also directly affects the overall health of a home’s occupants in numerous ways:

• Excess Moisture Supports Mold Growth

Excess humidity encourages the growth of mold, which leads to allergic reactions on the skin and around the eyes. Mold spores also cause respiratory irritation and asthmatic reactions, so it’s crucial that you arrange for mold testing in Roxbury Township, NJ or whichever town you reside immediately if you suspect there is a presence of mold within your house.

• Too much Humidity Causes Heat Exhaustion

When your body requires cooling off, it releases heat via sweat, which evaporates to the surrounding atmosphere. However, when there is excess humidity in the air, the sweat doesn’t vaporize, and thus you end up feeling damp, hot, and sticky. If you don’t seek a solution fast, your body will gradually overheat. You could consequently experience dizziness, weakness, and cramps. In extreme cases, you may lose consciousness.

• Insufficient Humidity Adversely Affects your Health

On the other hand, your home’s or office’s inadequate moisture levels could pose several health issues like skin irritation, dry eyes, and chapped lips. Insufficient humidity levels also make the mucus membranes dry, which could hinder your ability to resist upper respiratory issues. As such, it would help to find ways of increasing the moisture in your house or office to the recommended levels. 

TIP: Humidifiers will come in handy in raising a room’s humidity levels.

What’s the Solution to Excess Humidity?

• To prevent health issues, it would be prudent to purchase an ideal dehumidifier for your home or office to improve air quality. This device extracts excess moisture from the air and keeps the collected condensate in a reservoir, thus maintaining appropriate RH levels. Some dehumidifiers come with a drain port through which you may discharge the condensate directly. 

• It would also be in your best interest to determine and fix any causes of excessive humidity. These may include leaky faucets, broken window seals, and poor ventilation, especially in typically damp areas like bathrooms, basements, and laundry rooms.

The Bottom Line

Despite the continuous discussion on indoor air quality, it’s unfortunate that there’s no instant solution to the issue. As such, you are responsible for providing your family with clean air lest you leave them at risk of contracting respiratory diseases. Some of the best solutions for dealing with a polluted atmosphere include using air purifiers and ensuring proper air circulation throughout your home or office.

Also, remember that the recommended humidity levels in your premises are between 30% and 50%. To maintain your building’s ideal moisture levels, you will want to use a humidifier or dehumidifier.