Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
Indoor Air Quality
When I was a high school student, my friend Tom returned to school each fall wearing turquoise buckles and Indian necklaces. Tom spent each summer on an Indian reservation in the Southwest, because the desert air was kinder to his asthma. In those days I could only imagine the plight of those who had allergies and respiratory ailments such as hay fever. Sometime past my fiftieth birthday I joined their unhappy ranks, and I no longer have to consult the daily pollen count to know when there is a pollen alert. As the poet once wrote, my nose knows.

Respiratory ailments often develop in those who are aging. And air pollution in your home often exceeds the levels you encounter on your freeway. Years ago, while working as a magazine editor, I received a report about a pollution engineer in Los Angeles, California. The engineer was wearing an air pollution monitor while touring the Los Angeles freeway system. He forgot to turn the monitor off when he arrived home and was surprised to find that the air inside his home was 10 times more polluted than the freeway air. And as we tighten up our houses to conserve energy, the indoor air becomes even more polluted. Experts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tell us that the air pollution level can be as much as 20 times worse in your house than outdoors, and the source of that air pollution is usually under the direct control of the occupants of the house.

When I was a painting contractor, I spray-textured ceilings. Most often we had to patch small cracks or nicks in the ceilings before we re-sprayed them. When we patched with a true white patching material on a ceiling in a house where smokers lived, we had to prime and seal the ceiling with an oil-base sealer before we could spray. The true white patches on the smoked-up ceilings would highlight through the nicotine stains on the ceilings, so the ceilings would dry to a yellow color while the patched areas remained pure white. If you are a smoker and doubt the effect cigarette smoke has on indoor air and cleanliness, hold a piece of white paper up against your ceilings. You may be amazed to see how dirty those ceilings are.

The moral should be obvious: There is more than one reason you should not smoke inside the house. A Chicago-based architect who was active in environmental issues told me that gas cooktops were once required to have chimneys to carry away waste gases. In time, the requirement was dropped from building codes because the appliance industry argued that gas cooking appliances were operated only intermittently and then for brief periods. The problem may be that winter, when the house is tightly closed against the weather, is the time when we often prepare large meals.

Who has not noticed the windows fogging over when the Thanksgiving turkey was baking? Also, today, we have greatly tightened up our houses to stop air infiltration and reduce energy consumption. The products of gas combustion are not the only villains, of course. Cooking also produces smoke and grease to foul the air and dirty the walls. Install a range exhaust hood in the kitchen and use it frequently while cooking to remove air pollutants.

Tobacco, cooking, and fireplace smoke can all pollute indoor air. Avoid frying foods, use the microwave to reduce cooking time and grease, don't smoke indoors, and don't light the fireplace on very cold nights, when the house is tightly closed against the weather.

Also, avoid using aerosol products indoors. Using paint strippers indoors can not only pollute the air and cause respiratory problems, the fumes can damage your furnace if they are drawn into the furnace during combustion.

When installing new products such as carpet or paneling, leave the material in the garage for a couple of days to get rid of the "new smell." Some chemicals used in manufacturing home materials - formaldehyde, for example - can contribute to indoor air pollution. When the materials have lost the new smell, they are probably no air pollution threat to most people. The question of dangers from air pollution often revolves around the health of the house's occupants.

If you have household pets be sure to keep them well-groomed. Dog and cat dander can cause allergic reactions in those with respiratory problems. Keep carpets vacuumed: they can provide a haven for dust and dirt.

Change furnace filters often to keep them clean, or install a heavy-duty, multi-layered filter.

Air Cleaners

Electronic air cleaners can be installed in furnace air ducts or can be used free-standing. The filters are available in a variety of sizes to fit various size ducts without costly alteration. Some air cleaners, such as the White-Rogers model shown here, have optional charcoal filters to absorb odors from such sources as raw onions, burnt food, solvents, and cigarette smoke.

The air cleaner shown will remove 98% of larger pollution particles from the air. These pollutants include pollen, household dust, and lint. It will also remove 75% of small pollutants such as smoke from cooking or tobacco. These pollutants can be as small as .01 microns, much too small to be trapped in the ordinary furnace filter.

The electronic filter shown works in-line when it is installed in furnace return air ducts. The furnace blower motor pulls dust, smoke, and pollen into the air cleaner, where larger particles are trapped by a pre-filter screen. Smaller particles are charged with a positive charge then drawn into the cleaner's collecting section. In the collecting section a series of positive plates repels the charged particles, and they are driven onto negative plates that trap and hold them. The pollutants are held in the collecting section until the filter is cleaned. Most filters can be washed in a laundry tub or in the dishwasher.

The cost of air cleaners varies depending on type and size. Prices start at around $50 for non-powered filters. Ask a heating contractor to recommend a unit for your home. Remember, too, that electronic air cleaners, as well as other health aids, may be deductible items on your income tax if they are purchased on the advice of your physician.

Written by Gary Branson
Reprinted with permission. Copyright HouseNet, Inc.

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