Common Air Pollutants That Could be Hiding in Your House

Posted in Air Quality, on October 17, 2024

Air quality can change depending on the season, weather, and the changes to your home. SafeAir’s home air quality testing can tell you if any of these changes are hazardous and help you uncover allergens or particles that may be subtly affecting your wellness. Indoor air quality affects the body in many different ways, and since we’ll be increasing our time spent indoors as the weather gets cooler, taking a proactive approach to air quality today has benefits all winter long. 

Air Pollution 101

We’ve all heard of smog — that nasty grey cloud that lies over industrial sites and busy, car-filled cities. However, your indoor environment can also suffer from a more subtle, invisible type of air pollution that comes from many different and often surprising sources. 

Our houses have air flowing through them, so it stands to reason that this air can be affected by outdoor pollution, too. Living next to industrial areas, near a major road or highway, or in an inner-city neighbourhood may increase the likelihood of outdoor pollutants like particulate matter or soot getting trapped in your home. 

Indoor pollution happens from other sources, too. Renovations, scented products, and natural effects, like radon gas, can all affect indoor air quality from within. 

5 Common Air Pollutants

There are hundreds of different types of air quality pollutants that can affect your home. But when SafeAir looks at the decade-plus of air quality tests, certain commonalities rise to the surface. The five common air pollutants in residential homes are:

• Mold: This common fungus is commonly found in basements, bathrooms, and attics. Airborne spores can be detected during testing — unfortunately, they’re also easy to breathe in and can cause respiratory illness and infection. 
• Volatile Organic Compounds: AKA VOCs, these organic chemicals become airborne at certain temperatures — the smell of a freshly cut lemon is an excellent example of a harmless VOC. However, many VOCs are allergens and irritants and can be produced by common household activities and objects. 
• Radon Gas: Radon is an odourless and invisible radioactive gas produced deep in the earth’s crust. It is often attracted to basements and lower levels where it can collect in unsafe concentrations. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking, making it essential to test for. 
• Pollen: Outdoor allergens love to move inside! If you have seasonal allergies, taking steps to prevent pollen from entering your home can give you a much-needed refuge from the itching and sneezing.
• Combustion By-Products: If you burn gas, have a wood-burning stove, space heater, or barbecue near the home, you may be at risk of chemicals like carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide, which are produced when wood, gas, and other materials are burned. 

What You Can Do To Reduce Your Risk

One of the most challenging things to recognize about air quality problems is that they’re largely invisible. While we think our senses should help, many of these common problems are undetectable by the eyes, nose, or ears. Even mold, which can have a very distinct musty odour, may not be detectable if it’s growing behind a wall or deep in the attic. 

The best way to understand your home’s unique air environment is to have professional home air quality testing. At SafeAir, this testing is a comprehensive visual and physical inspection of your home and property that looks at multiple factors connected to common air pollutants and the invisible, more complicated-to-detect ones, too.

Looking at the environment around your home can give critical clues to what’s happening indoors. Nearby roads, landscaping, and businesses can all point to a variety of substances we may find in the home. Inside, careful readings of factors like temperature and humidity can clue our technicians into areas that may need closer inspection. 

Eliminating Air Quality Pollution

Once SafeAir has inspected your home, we send any samples or readings to a third-party lab and prepare a report with our findings. Many common air quality issues have easy and straightforward solutions that require minor changes to resolve, and our team has a host of general suggestions we give nearly every client — for example, many people don’t change their furnace filters often enough! 

Armed with our tips for improving indoor air quality, you and your family will breathe easier, both literally and figuratively. To book home air quality testing or speak to a technician about specialized services like radon testing, call or email SafeAir today!

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