Prevent Winter Allergies - Air Quality Test

Prevent Winter Allergies - Air Quality Test

What are Winter Allergies? Only enough they are allergic reactions to spending too much time indoors in winter months. Winter Allergies can have a significant effect on your health, short term as well as long term. Winter Allergies can also impact the enjoyment of your home and relationships.

Winter Allergies can come from a variety of indoor sources and can have a variety or degrees of effect on people’s health. Air quality testing our homes to prevent Winter Allergies is key to keeping our families healthy.

Top 5 Sources Of Winter Allergies:

  1. Dust  
  2. Mould
  3. Carbon Dioxide
  4. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s)
  5. Bacteria

Dust: Indoor or household dust can contain numerous allergic triggers. Indoor dust is composed of skin cells, fabric fibres, pet dander, pet hair, rodent droppings, human hair, insulation materials, fragments of drywall dust, wood dust, asbestos, mould fragments, bacteria and viruses.

Mould Growth: Indoor mould growth can produce thousands to hundreds of thousands of mould spores and yeasts into the breathable air. Most mould issues are hidden and can impact the indoor air quality for decades until the source is found.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2): Occupants of the home produce CO2 when they breathe. It is a direct indicator of how well a home breathes, exchanges air with the outdoor environment and how much fresh air and oxygen is coming into the home. Elevated or high CO2 levels can lead to headaches, insomnia, sinus and respiratory issues

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s): These are produced by almost anything in the home. Many paints, finishes, adhesives, perfumes, colognes, cleaning agents, candles, press board or glued furniture, or man made items can have VOC’s. These can emit a slight scent or can be very noticeable. Some are considered a nuisance where other chemical components can be extremely toxic.

Bacteria: Bacteria is part of our natural outdoor and indoor environment. Bacteria can protect us from more aggressive and pathogenic bacteria and should be treated with respect. It is understandable that these days we want to disinfect our hands and surfaces to keep our family safe. However, while killing all bacteria, we should be careful to make sure that the ‘good bacteria’ or probiotics can quickly resume protecting our homes and our bodies. Bacteria such as E.coli or Staphylococcus is not something we want in our homes.  

Indoor Air Quality testing can uncover winter allergy threats in our indoor environment and help keep our families safe this winter.

A proper indoor air quality test can provide you with important information on whether your home has a dust issues, hidden mould growth, a ventilation problem leading to a CO2 issue and if VOC’s and bacteria are an issue. Indoor air quality testing is like a physical for your home. The sooner you find out what your indoor air quality  & mold testing Oakville , the sooner you can address them and prevent winter allergies this year. 2021 is just around the corner. make sure your home is a healthy home this winter and prevent winter allergies with a proper indoor air quality assessment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should You Turn Down The Furnace When Leaving Your Home…Or Not?

  In many GTA homes, this could be dinner conversation or the source of some heated disagreements. Should you turn down the heat when you leave the home or keep the furnace running as usual when you’re home? There could be several reasons for turning down the furnace or heat in your home during the day, especially if no one is going to be home. There could be energy savings reasons and environmentally friendly intent, budgetary constraints and the need or desire to save money, as well as well meaning indoor air quality reasons and the belief that a cooler home is better for mould growth prevention. However, with these good intentions you may actually be harming your indoor environment and causing poor indoor air quality with fluctuating temperatures. Here is a list of problems associated with turning down the furnace for a few hours or even a few days when no one is home. Top 5 Reasons not to turn down the Heat when you leave the house: If it gets too cold, plumbing pipes could freeze
Read more

Your Home Should Be An Air Quality Safe Haven

Outdoor air pollution in Toronto and Southern Ontario is very poor today due to the Northern Ontario forest fires. We had a lot of pollution this spring with higher than normal pollen counts leading to more serious allergic reactions. Now, asthma sufferers are having to deal with the high dust counts outdoors from the soot and smoke from forest fires. This is Climate Change folks and it’s here to stay. This is why your home should be an air quality safe-haven! How? It’s actually easier than you think. To control outdoor pollutants such as seasonal pollen, ragweed, and grasses as well as summer soot and smoke particles from forest fires as well as other outdoor issues such as exhaust from cars and industry…you need proper ventilation and filtration. Proper ventilation will help dilute, dissipate and exhaust indoor air quality pollutants such as Carbon Dioxide (from us breathing), chemical issues such as VOC’s (from building materials and contents), and control indoor humidity that could
Read more

What Do I Do If My Basement Is Wet?

  With all the recent rain in the Toronto and GTHA area recently we are getting lots of calls from people concerned about damp basements and recent water or moisture issues. Most callers want to know how they should dry out their homes and prevent mold. Here are some general tips on mold prevention. One of the first things that you should do is STOP and THINK. Don’t do anything in a panic. Many people when faced with moisture or mold panic and in many cases make the situation worse.   You should first determine if this is the first time the area got wet or if this has been a recurring issue. The reason for this is that if there is a potential that mould has grown in the past in the affected area and may still be there….or if you see mold…it is best to call a professional mold inspection or professional mould remediation company. Mold clean up is not a DIY project and can have serious and costly results if you don’t have the right equipment and don’t know what you are doing. You can mak
Read more