Indoor Air Quality: What's It Worth To You?

Once upon a time, concerns about indoor air quality were limited mostly to places with resident smokers. Indoor smoking isn't nearly as acceptable as it once was, but air quality and worries about indoor air pollution are bigger issues than ever. These days, with outgassing from construction materials, "sick" buildings, dust, external pollutants, and other forms of modern pollution, indoor air can be much less healthy than outdoor air.

What's the big deal?

Years back, when no one gave a second thought about air pollution, we let big companies and individuals alike poison the environment at their whim. That's mostly past, but we're still paying for it with the pollutants permeating our world. Global weather patterns have changed, causing both chemical pollution and natural pollutants like dust (in newly arid environments) and mold (in newly wet ones) to take hold where they were never a problem before. These have begun to affect our indoor spaces as well as our outdoor ones, and indoor air pollutants can be even a greater threat than outdoor ones, because they're concentrated in smaller areas.

Why you should care about air quality

If you care about breathing, you have to take indoor pollution seriously. Did you know that pollutants in your home's air can cause the following:

• Allergies
• Malaise
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Headaches
• Fevers
• Coughing
• Chest tightness
• And even death?

If you're looking to increase the quality of your indoor air supply, consider purchasing gas detectors (for radon and deadly carbon monoxide) and air treatment devices like filtration systems and air purifiers. They may seem a little pricey in the short term, but in the long run they're a small price to pay to combat a known threat to your family's quality of life.