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You wouldn't eat trash. I don't know you personally, but I am pretty sure that you wouldn't. You wouldn't rub garbage juice on your skin or bathe in it. So why would you breathe garbage?
Air quality is just as important as water and food quality. Air quality often goes unnoticed, however, because air is invisible. We need to take breathing as seriously as we do eating and exercising. We obsess over the solids and the liquids that go into our bodies. Now it is time to do the same for the gases.
Check out these tips:
- Don't allow smoking in your house. If you smoke, you should quit. It's unhealthy. That's an easy tip. I'll give you more.
- Change the filter on your furnace or air conditioner every three months. Use a high-efficiency filter to keep out a third more pollutants.
- Get rid of your particle-board furniture. Particle board and other pressed woods often contain formaldehyde. That's a known carcinogen, Bub. Get rid of it.
- Keep your home dry. Do you have a leaky faucet? A basement with water stains all over the floor? Dry that place out. Mold and mildew can be some of the most damaging things in your home's air.
- Carpets can be horrible for air quality. There are some new kinds of carpet that reduce these problems, but for the most part, carpets collect dust and dander. Vacuum your carpets regularly.
- Ditch the air fresheners. They may cover embarrassing bathroom smells, but they do a number on your air quality.
- Use environmentally friendly cleansers. Those harsh, abrasive chemically potent cleansers aren't just tough on stains. They are tough on your lungs.
- Avoid moth balls. I've never had moth problems, but if I did, I sure as sugar wouldn't put balls of poison near my clothes.
- Keep your house clean. You air quality can be increased by leaps and bounds by simply keeping the joint tidy.
- Test for radon, asbestos, lead and other horrors that might be lurking in your home. These are the most poisonous and potentially the most harmful things found in your air.
Learn more techniques to improve air quality and breathing:
Improve Your Breathing—For Free!
How to handle your candle soot problem
Watch Out for Formaldehyde in your Home this Summer
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