How to Create a Greener Home Environment

There are several effective ways to rid your home of airborne pollutants. And yet, there are even more ways to keep these same pollutants from gaining entry in the first place.

Here are just a few ways you can immediately start improving the quality of your indoor air while generally promoting a healthier home environment.

• Don’t allow smoking indoors. Cigarette and other tobacco byproducts are the number one source of home particulate pollution. Small wonder when you consider that cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals and can cause lung, cervical, and other cancers along with heart disease, premature wrinkling, and more. To play it safe, don’t allow smoking within 300 feet of your home. Family members or guests who smoke on your patio and then come back indoors are bringing some of that smoke back inside with them.

• Stop using chemically-based air fresheners and spray-on cleaners. Many air fresheners and toilet bowl blocks contain a volatile chemical compound know as 1,4-dichlorobenzene. This substance alone can reduce your lung function by 4%. In their place, used 100% essential oil products.

• Open your windows every chance you get. Even in hot, muggy summer days, you should open a few windows here and there periodically to give airborne pollutants an escape route. The newer and more tightly constructed your home, the more it’s trapping and retaining those pollutants indoors.

• Kitchen & bath exhaust fans. Switch them on every time you’re cooking or cleaning to release built-up moisture and chemical cleaning agents. At the same time, check to see if your fans are clean and functioning at full capacity. Here’s one way how: grab a piece of toilet paper, hold it up to each fan, and then turn it on. If the fan can’t hold the toilet paper, then either the fan itself or its filter needs to be cleaned or replaced.

• Choose your dry cleaner carefully. If you’re not already using a green dry cleaner, then it’s time you made the switch. Traditional dry cleaning methods employ such chemicals as trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene that have been tied to kidney and nervous system damage.

Here at Your 1 Plumber, we can contribute to your cleaner indoor air. During our whole-house plumbing inspection, for example, we’ll look for signs (including telltale odors) of mold and mildew accumulation and then recommend the best and most effective solution for getting rid of the problem. If you smell mold and mildew now but you’re not sure where it’s coming from, contact Your 1 Plumber so can help protect your lungs and your home, all at the same time.