Thursday, January 5, 2012

Keep Air Clean At Home (4 Simple Ways)

(image credit to Getty Images)
It is undeniable that fresh and clean air at home is so important to support our activities and promote good health for our body. But if you live in urban areas, clean air is something that cannot be found easily in your environment. Bad quality air at home can lead to COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and other diseases. Therefore, it is so important to keep air clean at your home.

Generally, there are two major processes of ‘Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’ that usually occur together. Both are emphysema (can disturb the performance of the lung organ to work) and chronic bronchitis (this can lead to inflammation of the airways).

You may also like to know factors that can cause cancer, before continuing! Once again, the clean air at home is something that cannot be ignored; therefore take a few minutes to read pieces of helpful information below about several simple ways on how to keep air clean at home!

Avoid using traditional fireplace (wood-burning)!

There are several models of fireplace to choose from. But if your first concern is fresh and clean air in your house then much better to avoid choosing wood-burning fireplaces! The burning process of wood will produce some chemical substances (like CO2, CO, etc) that can disturb the cleanliness of the air in your local environment.

You can choose some eco-friendly heating technologies, such as solar heating system, geothermal heating system, etc. Eco-friendly technologies usually require higher up-front costs, but they can pay back your money from lower utility bills that you must pay monthly.

You can also try with electronic heaters or electronic fireplaces. This option is also good to promote clean air in your rooms but not too friendly to your pocket, because you have to pay expensive heating costs for each month of heating season.

Stop or avoid smoking!

There are around 85 percent COPD cases due to smoking in USA. Although you are not smoker but if one of your family members is smoker then the risk of COPD attack for yourself may also increase! Therefore, for better result, smoking or secondhand smoke must be absolutely avoided if you seriously care to your health.

As well we know, there are a lot of options and ways to stop smoking, but in fact kicking this bad habit is not easy! But if you are smoker and also have COPD, the stakes will increase higher than ever before. Stop smoking as earlier as possible will be helpful to prevent the progress of this disease growth faster.

Eliminate the movement of the dust mites!

If you are looking for information about causes that can trigger asthmatics then dust mites are one of the frequently answers. Therefore, people with COPD should be kept far away from dust mites.

In order to keep far away the dust mites; for the pillows-- much better to use not goose-down pillows or foam rubber pillows. Don’t forget also to use pillowcases & matters covers (mite proof or bed-bug proof choice). And if you want to wash your linens, make sure you use above 130 degrees Fahrenheit of hot water to wash them (do this at least once a week).

Regularly maintenance for heating and air conditioning appliances

If there is existing heating and air conditioning system in your home then make sure you give it regular maintenance. The maintenance is not only important to make the appliance with all components last longer but also important to keep air clean at your home.

Signing a contract with a professional cleaning service is not too bad idea, especially if the budget permits. The air filter of the appliance is the most important component that you have to consider carefully while doing maintenance. Dirty filter can lead to a pollutant problem in your rooms. Therefore, make sure the air filter is always regularly checked and cleaned or replaced if necessary.

What else you can do to keep clean air at home?
  1. Limit the access of your windows to open, especially if you live in big city where is prone to dust accumulation. You can open the windows in the morning and then close them at noon!
  2. Make sure the room where the stove is located has adequate proper ventilation! Consider also the entire ventilation system of your house! Good design of the ventilation should be able to cut down on potential trigger of lung trouble (like molds).
  3. Consider pet dander! Always clean your hands after touching your pet and don’t forget to always care to the cleanliness of your pet.