Wildfire is a serious concern for most of us, not just the danger of the fire itself but also the smoke that can travel for hundreds or thousands of miles. The smoke from burning wood can be more toxic than those from car exhaust. Those of us that don’t have good ways of keeping the smoke out of our homes or who need to spend a few hours outside each day need to know how bad the smoke is or is going to be in order to be properly prepared.
Each indoor space is unique, with its own sources of pollution and rate of exchange with outside air. Pollutants can build up indoors so Outside air is usually cleaner than indoor air. A great way to stop pollutants from building up is to remove them with an air purifier that filters out toxic particles and gasses, but their total impact is never completely clear because air pollution is constantly coming back.
Allergies share many symptoms with sinus infections, including runny nose and itchy, watery eyes, but they can’t cause a fever. In fact, taking your temperature can help your healthcare provider determine whether you’re dealing with allergies or an infection. For adults, a fever is any temperature higher than 100.4°F.
Bad odors and poor air quality often go hand in hand. Aside from being unpleasant, stinky scents can sometimes be a sign of unhealthy pollution in your indoor air. In previous posts, we’ve broken down what causes bad smells, how to know when they’re a sign of something harmful, and how to remove them from your home. Here, we get into the positive side of scents with five new ways to make your whole house smell good (without toxic chemicals or synthetic scents ruining your indoor air quality).
Particle pollution is a broad term that describes a complex mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air. Also called particulate matter (PM), this class of pollutants includes inorganic compounds, organic chemicals, metals, dust and soil particles, mold spores, pollen, and other biological materials—basically, anything that’s small and light enough to float.
It’s been clear for a while that when pollutants build up indoors, such as when cooking, they can easily make air quality hundreds of times worse than outdoors. We all learned a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic and are better equipped to avoid not just airborne pathogens but also the chemicals and other pollutants that pervade our air.
No matter how often you clean your home, you’re going to deal with bad smells from time to time. And once you notice them, they can be pretty hard to ignore. Most of the time, you should be able to deal with weird household smells on your own with a little bit of elbow grease. First, try to narrow down the funky scent to a single room
Odors are powerful chemicals ready to react with anything, up to and including the sensitive nerves in your nose. Removing them often requires equally powerful chemicals to dislodge, destroy, or cover them up.
These days, it’s pretty easy for indoor air pollution to build up to levels that would trigger an air quality warning if they were found outside. Even something as simple as cooking dinner can pollute your home with harmful gasses and airborne particles that remain in the air long after you’ve finished eating.
Air purifiers are a great tool to cut down the presence of air pollution in your home. Not only can they work to minimize your exposure to airborne pollutants, but they may also help relieve allergy symptoms, reduce household dust, and even bust funky odors.
The world’s surfaces are covered in mold spores just waiting to sprout. Most of these spores will crack, dry out, and die before they can start to grow, but in countless other places fuzzy colonies of fungi will appear seemingly out of nowhere to devour any organic matter they can.