Air Quality Toxic Assault & Air Pollution Solutions

Air Quality can be Detrimental to Health

Before I knew about volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and what it did to indoor air quality, I chose a popular indoor flat wall paint for my basement walls. Even with the door closed, the fumes seeped into the upper floors. My symptoms started immediately – a sick headache, itchy eyes and ears, sore throat, cough, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and trouble concentrating. I never made the mistake again of thinking everything on the store shelf was safe.

Long-term Health Problems Soar as Air Quality Gets More Toxic

Whether living in or near a city or rurally, our air quality is contaminated. Some natural events such as forest fires and volcanic eruptions can pollute the air. Human activities add far more pollutants to the air we breathe. We are showered with chemicals from industrial smokestacks, vehicle exhausts, chemtrails from planes, pesticides, incinerators, crematoriums, chemical spills, and lord knows what else.

The unsuspecting public is bombarded both indoor and outside with poisons polluting our air that may impact the body years later. Exposures to these hazardous chemicals are linked to cancer, infertility, asthma, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. These and other health problems are all on the rise. Poor air quality has a significant damaging impact on the health of children, pets, and plants.

Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Here are a few uncomplicated actions you can take to lessen the exposures to the toxins in the air you breathe.

1. Reduce your pesticide exposure by
   1. Not using chemicals indoor
   2. Taking shoes off before coming in the house
   3. Staying out of commercial buildings for 2 days after exterminator applications
   4. Using an air purifier
2. Minimize dry cleaning
   1. Clothes will out-gas Trichloroethylene (TCE) or Perchloroethylene (PCE) which is toxic to nerve tissue and carcinogenic.
   2. If dry-cleaned goods have a strong chemical odor when you pick them up, do not accept them until they have been properly dried.
   3. Look for organic dry cleaning establishments
3. Get around poor outdoor air quality
   1. Select quiet residential areas rather than hectic business centers or industrial locations for bike rides and strolls.
   2. Wear a mask when biking in traffic.
   3. Avoid strenuous outdoor activity
4. Make you indoor air quality safer
   1. Naturally purify. Houseplants absorb airborne toxins such as formaldehyde, benzene and TCE.
   2. Avoid commercial air fresheners now also found in plastic garbage bags and cleaning supplies.
   3. Invest in a good air purifier for getting rid of odors, smoke, micro-organisms, construction dust and VOCs
5. Buy new, buy natural
   1. Many furnishings and floor coverings are made of synthetic materials that give off toxic fumes. Look for natural furnishings made of wood, cotton, and wool.
   2. Avoid flame retardants, stain resistant coatings and Teflon coated pans
   3. Stay away from vinyl shower curtains, vinyl flooring, plastic toys containing PVC
6. Avoid the paint fumes
   1. Use wall paints that have low VOCs.
   2. Don’t sleep in a freshly painted room.
   3. Allow in fresh air for a minimum of 24 hours.

One more thing. Never mix household products. They can emit dangerous toxic fumes.

Make your own natural cleaning supplies, but still don’t combine ingredients for different products.

Learn more how to recognize and deal with environmental toxic exposures.