Indoor Air Pollution – The Unseen Hazard Inside Your Home

Have you thought about investing in an air filter or air cleaner in Singapore? If you don’t, do you have a healthy diet, exercise regularly and sleep eight hours? You might be convinced that your general lifestyle is healthy. But have you wondered if everything is all set health-wise? Everything inside your home might not be fine-tuned enough to keep you from being sick.

The terrible thing that could happen is something that will cancel out your health efforts. The hidden danger lurking inside your home can affect your overall health, and it’s something we don’t notice. The quality of your indoor air—the ones you and your loved ones breathe. Our healthy lifestyle will not make us immune to disease and illness so long as the air we breathe is polluted and unclean.

Is Your Home Really Safe?

We often think our home is the safest place we can be—our own personal haven. We retreat back to it from the hardships and the strikes of modern life. The protective confines of our home won’t protect us from the unseen risk that is already inside every house. Hence, you should consider investing in an air filter in Singapore.

Breathing is a natural thing that we do. It is something that is innate in our nature. Yet we cannot be selective with the air we inhale. Have you thought about the quality of the air we take inside our lungs? How do they get passed down to the tiniest cells within our body?

While we cannot be selective of the air we breathe since we cannot determine if the particulate is harmful. However, we have the devices and technology to shape the air around us, primarily indoors. Hence why plenty of modern establishments are installing indoor air purification systems.

When Your Indoor Air Might Not Be Clean As You Think!

Your-Indoor-Air-Not-Be-Clean-As-You-Think

Poor air quality simply leads to greater overall health risk. No matter how well your diet or exercise routine is, your health is still at risk if the air you breathe 24/7 is filled with harmful pollutants. Unless you have invested in using an air filter, your home is not safe from the hazardous chemicals that can cause you cancer, poisoning or other illness.

Here are some examples of harmful sources of indoor air pollutants that you might be inhaling inside your home:

Smoke from cigarettes, pipes or cigars

Tobacco smoke carries more than 7,000 chemicals alone, and around 70 of these are carcinogenic. Now, carcinogenic means a substance that promotes the formation of cancer. It may have the ability to damage your body’s cellular metabolic process and genome.

Plenty of these carcinogenic particulates, including nicotine and hydrogen cyanide, can cause chronic pulmonary disease. Other known illnesses you can obtain from cigarette and tobacco smoking include heart disease and diabetes. Therefore, if you’re inhaling cigar smoke inside your home, you better consider investing in an air cleaner.

Cooking stove

Your home might not be on the same par as any industrial plants that emit chemicals. However, your cooking stove is enough to release particulate matter (PM), and exposure to this leads to respiratory infections, heart disease and even cancer. Eye, nose and throat irritation is also one of the most common symptoms of PM exposure.

PM also contributes to climate change and acid rain, apart from the mentioned health risks. Particulate matters are the same microscopic solids and liquid droplets emitted from industrial plants and vehicles.

Mould

Moulds are another common indoor air pollutant. They are one of the primary sources of a number of health problems, including asthma attacks, allergies and respiratory infections. They form and thrive in high-humidity environments. Thus, you should consider placing your air cleaner in such an area to counter by replacing the area’s air particles.

Additionally, moulds can be more dangerous for people with immunocompromised systems, chronic asthma or allergies.

Cleaning agents/products

Almost every cleaning product uses harmful chemicals that release toxic fumes. Among those examples of harmful chemicals are ammonia, ethylene glycol monobutyl acetate, trisodium phosphate, chlorine, carcinogens and neurotoxins, to name a few.

In addition to the mentioned hazardous chemicals, several cleaning products carry VOCs or volatile organic compounds. VOCs evaporate quickly at room temperature, thus releasing more harmful compounds in the air that are associated with long-term health risks. Hence if you are often exposed to these cleaning chemicals, consider investing in an air cleaner. It will help you and the people living inside your household be protected.

Pet danders

Pet danders are what we call materials that are shed by animals that have hair, feathers or fur. They come from your pet’s skin and saliva and can be released into the air. Many people do develop allergies to pet danders. While they may not be as dangerous as other chemicals and compounds, they can cause respiratory problems. People who have asthma, hay fever and allergies are the most affected.

If you are living with a loved one with health problems while having pets, consider using an air filter to replace it to eliminate pet danders.

Other common air pollutants:

  • Asbestos
  • Pesticide
  • Radon
  • Biological pollutants
  • Lead
  • Nitrogen Dioxide
  • Formaldehyde

Final Thoughts

The absence of a simple air filter or any air purification system makes a difference to our health. According to a report from the World Health Organisation, over 3.8 million people die prematurely in a year due to health illnesses related and attributed to indoor air pollution. A total of 54% of these are due to pneumonia and ischaemic heart disease, while 20% are from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Additionally, 18% suffered from a stroke, while 8% died from lung cancer.

It might sound grim. However, these are the hidden dangerous effects of indoor air pollution. We barely notice this problem. However, with the use of air filters and purification technologies, we can improve our indoors and save our loved ones from experiencing these health risks. Let us all aim to have healthy indoor home living!

If you are looking for an indoor air purification system or aircon servicing in Singapore, visit Purlife Company.