Is Your Home’s Air Dangerous?

When we discuss indoor air quality, we usually mean annoyances like pollen, dust, and household chemicals that can irritate our throats or cause runny or stuffy noses. For millions of people with asthma or other respiratory diseases, even minor irritants can lead to significant discomfort or even distress. Pollutants can make breathing more difficult, so they’re important to avoid. But there are some indoor air pollutants dangerous enough to lead to hospitalization, respiratory illness, even serious and lasting health consequences, including cancer. They’re particularly nasty challenges to creating and maintaining a safe and sustainable home. Let’s look at a few of the most dangerous indoor air quality hazards, and find out how you can avoid exposure to them.

Off-Gassing—an Invisible Enemy

One of the primary causes of dirty inside air is off-gassing—the shedding of irritating or toxic gases into the air by household materials. These gases can even come from materials used to build the house itself. Sources include adhesives that hold the components in compressed wood or plastic products together, or those used to attach flooring or tiles. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in most house paints and stains pollute the air as they evaporate. Rugs, carpets, and hard flooring made with nylon, vinyl, or other synthetic materials can off-gas for months after installation.

Composite wood products in engineered wood flooring and furniture often include polluting chemicals that off-gas. One of the most problematic of these gases is formaldehyde. “Fast furniture” products made with compressed wood products like particleboard or medium-density fiberboard (MDF) are especially likely to be made with significant amounts of formaldehyde. Plywood and other wood products made of wood layers or chips are often glued together with adhesives rich in formaldehyde. Disturbingly, formaldehyde is known to be carcinogenic in humans and animals.

Choose safer products

If you want significantly better indoor air quality, here are several things to keep in mind if you want to avoid purchasing products off-gas significantly:

• Choose solid wood furniture where possible, instead of items made with particleboard
• Select flooring and building materials made without formaldehyde-based glues and binders
• Go for the low- or zero-VOC paints and stains
• Buy low-VOC carpets and carpet padding
• Choose upholstered furniture and pillows made with organic fabrics, cushions, and filling
• Use air purifiers with activated carbon filters specifically made to remove gases—standard particle filters can’t filter them out
• Buy used furniture—these pieces have already done most of its off-gassing

Low-VOC paints

“Green” zero- or low-VOC paints used to be very expensive and not as durable as regular paints. Their coverage was often poor. But today a number of paint companies—including giant companies and small artisanal houses—are creating cleaner, safer paint options. Unfortuntely, paint stores often tint those healthier, more sustainable paints with tints that introduce VOCs, and that’s not always clear to the consumer (or to the paint store employees who do the tinting). Darker colors require more tint, so they tend to have higher VOCs.

Green Building Supply sells a variety of zero-VOC primers, paints, stains, and sealers, and is a good source of information about sustainable home products. Some major paint makers—including Behr (the Home Depot house brand), Benjamin Moore, and Sherwin Williams—produce their own lines of low- or zero-VOC paints that come in thousands of colors, and they use tints that don’t add VOCs. Some options are pricy—Sherwin Williams zero-VOC SuperPaint is $75 per gallon. However, Behr’s Premium Plus low-VOC line is about $40 per gallon, and it comes in more finish options, including high-gloss, which is more durable and thus great for wood trim. Benjamin Moore has three zero-VOC lines; their top-of-the-line Eco Spec paints (which cost about $60 per gallon) have been certified as asthma- and allergy-friendly.

Paying an extra $10—$40 per gallon for paint sounds like a lot. But paint can continue to off-gas for five to ten years, and is likely to stay on your walls for a very long time before you paint again. VOCs can cause eye and throat irritation and aggravate asthma, and they escape to pollute the outside environment as well. Isn’t it worth it to pay a few dollars up front to make your home smell fresher and keep your home’s air quality higher for years to come?

Limit off-gassing

Are you about to introduce something to your home that’s likely to off-gas? New carpeting, beds, and sofas are some of the worst culprits. Increase ventilation as much as possible for a few days after you add these items to your home.

Higher temperatures increase the rate of off-gassing, so you might want to avoid the air conditioner and instead just open the windows for a few days. The heat increases the off-gassing rate, but good ventilation lowers the concentration in the home. If you can, stay out of the home for a few days while your new items shed the bulk of their gases.

Furnishings and wood products made without formaldehyde keep gases out of your home in the first place. Products that limit or omit this chemical compound usually mention it in labels and online retail listings. If you’re constructing or renovating a home, select formaldehyde-free materials. Most products use the troubling compound in their adhesives and binders, but companies in a number of countries—including the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and France—make MDF products without adding formaldehyde. Lowe’s home improvement stores carry some such products. Examples of these materials are described in a helpful article at MyChemicalFreeHouse.net.

Radon—Radioactivity from Underground

Radon gas is the main cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. This radioactive gas released by rock, soil, and water can build up under homes and silently poison them. It can show up in buildings that are new or old and with or without basements, whether well-sealed or poorly ventilated. According to the EPA’s Citizen’s Guide to Radon, nearly one out of 15 U.S. homes has elevated radon levels.

The only way to know whether your house needs radon remediation is to test for it. Radon testing is not expensive, so it’s important to test every home for this gas. If you are being exposed to radon, fixing your home so that you are not at risk from it does not have to be costly, and it can usually be done in a day. The CDC has helpful information on how to reduce radon levels in your home and improve your indoor air quality and safety.

Asbestos

Asbestos, formerly widely used as an insulation material and fire-retardant, is a particularly dangerous substance when inhaled. Even a single exposure can cause cancer. If you know your house includes asbestos insulation or materials made with asbestos, it’s vital that you have asbestos abatement specialists inspect your home. They will determine whether you need to have it removed or safely sealed.

Asbestos was commonly used in many home building and repair materials before the 1980s.  Likely sources of asbestos include the following pre-1980s materials:

• Insulation
• Vinyl floor tiles, tile backing, and tile adhesive
• House siding
• Roofing shingles
• Popcorn-textured ceilings
• Pipe insulation, such as plumbing wraps
• Paint and wall patching compounds
• Door gaskets on oil and coal furnaces
• Heat-resistant boards and papers used around wood stoves

If you find materials that you believe include asbestos, leave them in place. Do NOT remove asbestos yourself. The removal process can release large amounts into the air, which can dangerously contaminate the people and animals in your home and leave residue behind. It must be carefully removed in controlled circumstances by professionals. If items with asbestos are not disintegrating, they probably don’t pose an immediate hazard. Contact an asbestos remediator for an assessment.

Note that if you do any renovations on a pre-1980s home, some regions may require that you provide proof of asbestos remediation work done during those updates when you sell your property. You may want to make sure you have that handy before you put your house on the market. If you can’t find your paperwork, you can contact the remediation company and request a copy.

Black Mold

How dangerous is black mold? Does it seriously affect indoor air quality? Some people hardly notice the smell and don’t seem to respond to it. Others have serious difficulty breathing when it’s present. Reactions tend to be more severe (sometimes dangerously so) in people with respiratory conditions such as asthma. Reports of confusion and cognitive impairments caused by mold infestations exist, but they’re inconclusive.

People with immune suppression or underlying lung disease are more susceptible to fungal infections. They may be more seriously affected by mold infestations. It’s important to keep their air as clean as possible.

Should you clean up mold yourself?

Even if you haven’t noticed symptoms of illness caused by mold, it’s bad for you and your home. Like tobacco smoke, once the smell gets into textiles such as upholstery, it can be almost impossible to remove. Cleaning up moldy areas such as bathrooms, under sinks, around windows, or in basements regularly is important.

Simple household vinegar (which costs about $3.50 per gallon) is a very effective mold killer. You can do it yourself if the affected area is smaller than 10 square feet. More than that, and the EPA suggests that you hire professionals, since the mold is then likely to be more invasive and will require more than superficial cleaning. The EPA recommends against cleaning mold with bleach in most cases because invisible spores usually remain behind after bleach cleanings.

It’s All Fixable

While nobody wants to live around toxic pollutants, it’s good to know that impediments to good indoor air quality can all be addressed and improved. The first steps are noticing and assessing any problems. Then you can take the steps necessary to make your home clean, safe, and comfortable.

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Your home’s air should always be clean enough to support good health and comfort | Chevanon Photography for Pexels