Indoor Air Quality

I was reading a few articles this morning from, of all places, the Alaska Building Science news! I know this is a long way from home and the building methods are very different, for example R-140 ceilings and 28” thick R-90 walls, but the desire to live cheaply and comfortably is universal. Yes this was a test home, but R-50-60 building envelopes are the norm; it’s a lot colder up that far north.

The building science part was very interesting and certainly unique, but the article I read about indoor air quality is one that I think warrants mentioning to everyone, regardless what part of the globe you call home.

We have all heard about the dangers of CO (Carbon Monoxide) and detectors are cheap and readily available. Most of us are aware of the dangers of Radon as well, but what about a very common hazard we rarely give a second thought: household cleaners. Below is part of an article by Rich Seifert titled How Important Is Indoor Air Quality…

“Perhaps the most unsuspected dangers for IAQ (indoor air quality) in homes are the household cleaners. The fundamental problems with these items are the fragrances used in them. Unfortunately for us, the consumers, it is not required by law to disclose the ingredients in the fragrances used by the cleaners. The Fragrances may contain 50 or many more organic substances. Some can be allergenic, and that may be the least of the hazards. This concern also applies to plug-in air fresheners since the fragrances in these products don’t have to be exposed. The plug-in is used to evaporate and fill a room with a fragrance in order to mask other odors in the room. Since other odors could warn you of other hazards, like mold or moisture problems, it is unwise to use heated plug-in fragrance devices to mask odors in your house. You may be adding to a problem and making your house unwittingly worse for allergy suffers since you don't ’now what else you are being exposed to.”

This is great advice whether you live in Alaska or Georgia and I will add one thing to the above paragraph. When using chemicals and fragrances always remember that unscented is also a scent. It probably takes as many, or more, organic compounds combined to remove the scent from the chemicals used to make the cleaning product or air freshener!