Tag Archives: indoor air quality

Three Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality Naturally

By Environment, Small Business, , , , , , , , , , , ,

While outdoor pollution always seems to be on the forefront of all of our minds, many people don’t stop to consider the quality of the air indoors and inside their own home. It is a little known fact that indoor air quality can be up to five times worse than outdoor air quality. Additionally, the EPA has ranked indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental concerns that we face on a daily basis and that up to 50% of illnesses are caused or made worse by inadequate indoor air quality. When you stop to think about these statistics, it is concerning that we spend most of our time in our homes being exposed to these pollutants. This article will discuss some simple ways to improve your indoor air quality in your home naturally so that you and your family can remain safe and healthy.
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Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe

By Environment, Health, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Berkeley Lab researchers work on new building standards after discovering previously unknown indoor air pollutants.

For decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes unless there was secondhand smoke or radon present. Then scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) made the discovery that the aggregate health consequences of poor indoor air quality are as significant as those from all traffic accidents or infectious diseases in the United States. One major source of indoor pollutants in the home is cooking.

The Berkeley Lab scientists are now working on turning those research findings into science-based solutions, including better standards for residential buildings and easier ways to test for the hazardous pollutants. These efforts are the result of a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2012 that described a new method for estimating the chronic health impact of indoor air pollutants. That research uncovered two pollutants that previously had not been recognized as a cause for concern—fine particles and a gas called acrolein. (more…)

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