Everyone deserves to breathe the best quality of air. Good quality air means living in a safe and healthy environment. This means lower risks of illnesses such as airborne diseases and allergies.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of breathing fresh air. People are often exposed to poor air quality, which has given rise to respiratory illnesses, asthma, and allergies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 93% of children under the age of 18 are exposed to environmental pollutants.
But there are several ways on how to test air quality in your home and ensure your family lives in healthy environments. You cannot control the pollutants outside your home, but you can definitely improve your indoor air quality. If you’re wondering how that is possible, then here are five ways to test the quality of the air you breathe.
1. Be Alert on Signs of Poor Quality Air Around Your Home
There are times when your body can tell you if the air quality around you is not healthy. Irritants in the air are common allergy culprits you should always stay alert on. Watch out for symptoms like sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, headaches, etc.
Contaminants such as toxic mold, different types of chemicals, and asbestos can affect your health. If you often suffer illnesses such as pneumonia or bronchitis, watch the quality of the air you breathe. Other health symptoms caused by these include nausea, dizziness, fatigue, etc.
If you notice any of these types of sicknesses affecting your family, you should act quickly to purify the air in your home. For an effective purification, you can use a whole home air purifier, which does the work well. Also, consider getting the services of a professional to help you out.
2. Learn How to Test Air Quality in Your Home With Air Quality Monitors
So you’ve heard that there are air quality monitors that you can use for your home. But do you know how they work to measure indoor air quality? Or you fall in the majority who don’t even know that such a device even exists?
Well, there are different kinds of air quality monitors that can detect your home’s air quality. The devices are made in a way that they can detect dust particles and all types of allergens within your home. They’re also capable of detecting Volatile Organic Compounds, humidity, and temperature.
The device can detect all these in your home’s air and report the data to you. Some models of air quality monitors come with a display panel that shows the reported values and readings in real-time. Other models show you the overall indoor air quality test results in its indicator light.
Thanks to technology, some indoor air monitors are connected to your smartphone and can share the readings through your phone’s app. Some come smart home enabled and can pair with thermostats; hence you can manage energy usage as you also control your indoor air quality.
3. Test for Mold Presence
One of the things that corrupt the quality of air within your home is mold. Mold is a well-known household pollutant which is quite dangerous.
Mold can occur from moisture, rotten leftovers, and high humidity in your home. The good news is that they’re also easy to deal with. You have to improve the humidity levels, dry off the moisture, and throw away that rotten bread.
But is that all? Absolutely not! You cannot see airborne mold, and they’re no doubt the most dangerous when it comes to polluting the air quality in your home.
Testing your home for mold is very easy and cheap. But you can also use your sense of smell, and sight to test for mold. You can also consider hiring professionals to check for mold in your home and take necessary action.
4. Monitor Carbon Monoxide in Your Home
Carbon monoxide is a hazardous substance you can have in your home. There is a reason why the substance is called a silent killer. This is because you can’t see or smell the substance hence can grow in poorly ventilated areas without getting noticed.
If you have some form of fuel combustion in your home either from gas burning stoves, furnaces, or dryers, you’ll be definitely exposed to carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is very dangerous to children, adults, and pets.
Before it gets to this point, you need to test and monitor its presence in your home. There are various carbon monoxide detectors you can use for this purpose.
One of the detectors is carbon alarms for the stove. You can also use other types of indoor air quality testing monitors that can detect the presence of carbon monoxide. Pay for either an alarm or a monitor and get an effective device for the safety of your family.
5. Test for Radon Presence in Your Home
You should also test for radon presence in your home and keep away from this dangerous substance. Radon is also an odorless, tasteless, and colorless substance that you cannot detect without the use of a special device.
It can find a way into your home through cracks on walls or floors and pipes. Radon occurs from the breakdown of uranium deposits in the soil. It enters your home at the lowest levels concentration there for a long time.
The environmental Protection Agency (EPA) puts radon as the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. It doesn’t act quickly like carbon monoxide but can pose a danger in the long term. Seek professional help to test radon presence in your home and take action immediately.
Improve the Air Quality in Your Home
Learn how to test air quality in your home is vital to your health. After testing and learning that your home is not the best place to be in terms of air quality, you must work on making things better. Find out different ways and devices that can help improve your indoor air quality.
Remember to check out other articles on this site for more informative content for your health and general wellbeing.
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