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Indoor Air Quality and its Effects on Children

Indoor Air Quality has to stay high in order to maintain a set of healthy lungs. The air in your home might be dirtier than you think. First of all, generally speaking the majority of houses in the United States have relatively good air quality. You can easily go home right now and perceive the air as normal.

General Perception of Air Quality in Homes

If it does not have any odors then you may have good air. That being said, there are only a few things in life that are certain; Death, Taxes, Mistakes and Room for Improvement. You have to test the air quality of your home to be certain that the air quality is acceptable.

The keyword is good, most of us, generally speaking can not tell the difference between great air or good air. Trust me there is a difference and our noses might be blind to it, but our bodies are not. (especially young children.)

Seasonal Allergies

It has come to my attention that many kids, especially those in elementary school develop a seasonal illness every year. Many if not all kids get some cold symptoms such as a sore throat, coughing, running nose and or vomiting. I experienced the seasonal illness growing up. If I got to my memory lane, I remember going to Elementary school and having common cold symptoms. I would always blame the air conditioner and myself… now here me out.  This happened twice a year and as the years went by, I slowly came up with my own conclusions. I blamed it on the air inside my house and myself.

Personal Experience with Seasonal Illnesses

The reason of self blame was my sleeping patterns. I slept with my mouth open the majority of the night and when I woke up I would start coughing. I would wake up and my mouth and throat would be as dry as a bone. My dry throat would go on to develop flu and common cold symptoms. My only options were to go to the doctor and take the medicine that I was prescribed. (or antibiotics and I took my medicine and slowly but surely recovered.) Now as an adult, I think my house had poor ventilation and that caused my sickness.

Side Note

Please keep in mind that I will go into the science of air quality and its effects. Of course I am not a doctor and I would never make such a claim. I will simply discuss the effects of indoor air quality. I am aware that my speculations of the seasonal illness could just be that-speculations. However, I think we can all enjoy a little investigative journalism/ thinking outside approach of trying to get to the bottom of the infamous seasonal illnesses because the only medical reason(s) of said sickness are: Allergies.

That’s right Allergies is a gray area when it comes to finding an exact culprit. However, I do know that an object or a thing can cause allergies. Our bodies can also inhale something and going undergo the same effects as a regular allergy. Fungi are known to be harmful, so any kind of exposure to mold can potentially make you sick. The initial topic of the blog was you trying to enhance your air quality from your house and turning it from good sustainable air into great quality air that can not only ventilate your home properly but also to avoid you or any children you may have because I have research that can show you how fragile the vital organs are when kids are the in early years of their lives.

Research

The University of California Los Angeles, has a neat article describing in great detail how every kid from birth to adulthood develops his/her vital organs, such as lungs, heart, and even the brain and how even the slightest pollutant can cause harm. According to the University, Children’s lungs, immune system, and brain rapidly develops from birth to around six years of age and then it develops at a slower rate, but it is very sensitive and the even short term exposure to pollutants in the air had a greater chance of causing acute, respiratory illnesses, asthma attacks, chronic coughing, and even Bronchitis. Any pollutant can harm the lungs. Make sure the air around is clean!

More Tips and Research

Most of the possible effects above are contributed to pollution from the air outside. The easy solution to avoid children from getting sick is limiting the amount of time kids are playing outside. However kids will be kids and they have to spend time playing outside with friends, I do not know about you but my fondest childhood memories are attributed to playing tag, kickball, football and countless other games.

If you take the approach of limiting the time your kids is outside, be mindful of your children's enjoyment. Please try to incorporate some time for outside play time for your children. Most notably many if not most kids develop social skills and get adequate exercise. When children exercise the lungs, bones, and brain grow and important crucial developments take place. Instead of worrying about the air outside, that is very hard to control, you can start right now in your home.

The EPA has a good article filled with tips on improving air quality and they suggest the public to ventilate the home by reducing the time you use kerosene heaters, and stoves along with other heating sources. Try to put on a fan while cooking and avoid hobbies such as welding, soldering and or sanding.

Other than that you can check your HVAC system, air conditioner, and any other source of air and just checking the quality of the air. If the air is inadequate, adjust accordingly. Contact us, if you need any help, who knows maybe we can fix the quality of air in your house! Perhaps your children will breath better and avoid getting sick or at the very least avoid big problems such as bronchitis.

About Michael Church

Michael Church has been involved with indoor air quality since 2005 and feels the unhealthy crawl space is one of the major problems causing poor indoor air quality.

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