Seniors living in the California cities of Whittier, Downey, Pico Rivera, and Bell Gardens expect weather changes throughout the year. These weather changes can affect the quality of air indoors. For instance, warmer temperatures increase outdoor airborne allergens that can enter indoor spaces. Winter also brings in cold weather, increasing indoor dampness, bacteria, mold, and dust mites.
It's crucial to preserve the air quality inside your home to maintain your health. You can only achieve this if you know about the factors that cause poor air quality and learn ways to improve it. Read on to learn more.
Factors that Lead to Poor Air Quality in Your Whittier Home
They are common reasons why the air quality of your home in Bell Gardens can be poor. Knowing these factors can help you reduce the possibility of symptoms like skin irritation, fatigue, and headache that result from low air quality. Here are five factors that contribute to poor home air quality.
- Smoking indoors
- Using cleaning products with volatile organic compounds, which are gases that easily evaporate at room temperature
- Failure to clean your AC vents
- Use of gas heaters. Furnaces that use natural gas, oil, or propane to keep a house warm contaminate the air quality using the dangerous carbon monoxide they produce.
- Building materials like asbestos, fiberglass, and volatile organic compounds
Ways You Can Improve the Air Quality in Your Downey Home
There are various ways to improve the air quality of your Pico Rivera home. Here are a few steps you should consider:
Cut Down the Pollutants
It would help if you learned about the sources of air pollution in your home to keep quality air. Some of the common pollutants you should know about include:
- Radon: Use a home radon test kit to check for unsafe radon levels in your home. If the test reveals high levels, you can reduce them by sealing your home's foundation to avoid gas leaks into your living room.
- Cigarette smoke: Ask your house members to avoid smoking indoors or do away with smoking. You may still be affected by thirdhand smoke found on clothes and furniture that absorbs it.
- Formaldehyde: This is a common volatile organic compound found in furniture and composite wood glue. You can reduce its presence by buying used furniture rather than new ones and choosing solid wood furniture rather than composite wood.
- Cleaning products: Certain cleaning products like bleach, air fresheners, and glass cleaners may affect the quality of air in houses as weather changes. Therefore, choose nontoxic cleaning products to maintain clean air.
Use Relevant Measures to Control Allergens
Some of the ways you can control allergens in your Pico Rivera home include:
- Bathing and brushing your pet regularly
- Washing your bedding in hot water twice every month
- Choosing impermeable mattresses and hypoallergenic pillows
- Vacuuming your house regularly
- Replacing wood, drywall, and carpet to do away with mold
Improve Your Home's Ventilation
Improving ventilation in your Bell Gardens home is the simplest and least expensive way to improve its air quality. Some of these measures include:
- Opening the doors and windows and letting fresh air from outside in
- Cleaning and changing your heating and cooling system filters regularly
- Cleaning all air ducts in your home are unobstructed
- Replacing filters your air conditioner's filters as recommended by the manufacturer
Get Help Maintaining Indoor Air Quality with Senior Helpers
There are certainly lots of things that can cause poor air quality in your home. Adopting recommendable measures to keep your home's air clean is crucial. Otherwise, you will be putting yourself at risk of various health issues.
At Senior Helpers of Whittier-Downey, professional caregivers can help ensure that our client's homes remain fresh and clean. Contact us today to learn more about our specialized care plans for you or your loved one.