In helping create a greener world, we all can do our part.
Air pollution can affect your personal health and the health of the environment at large. More than 9 out of 10 of the world’s population lives in environments where air pollution exceeds safe limits.
Even within our homes, pollution may be caused by a mix of dust, lead, chemicals, and more. Sometimes the air within our homes can be more unsafe than the air outside.
There are many ways for you to make a difference– at work or at home. It’s all of our responsibilities to help contribute to cleaner air.
Here are a few ways to start.
1. Keep Your Floors Clean
The easiest way to start improving the air quality at home or at your office is to pull out the trusty vacuum.
Chemicals and allergens build up inside household dust and can remain indefinitely.
Using a vacuum cleaner with strong suction and a HEPA filter can help make sure every last particle of dirt and dust is pulled from your carpets and floors.
Don’t be afraid to re-vacuum and really dig into spots until you’re certain they’re clean.
Making sure to give extra attention to places where dust can get trapped is advised. These include walls, carpet edges, and upholstered furniture.
Mopping up following a vacuuming session can help to catch dust that vacuum suction may have left behind.
2. Keeping The Fireplace Off
One big step to cleaner air can be avoiding burning wood in the home fireplace.
As cozy as they may be in the throws of winter, wood-burning fireplaces produce large amounts of produce particles that can infect the air and make it more difficult to breathe.
An active fireplace puts large amounts of soot and carbon out into the air. This can affect the air quality of the surrounding environment– and make it much worse for your own lungs at home.
The EPA has gone as far as warning homeowners against using wood-burning fireplaces, deeming the resulting smoke as air pollution.
3. Keep Your House Filled With Green
None other than NASA has conducted a study that indicated that keeping houseplants in our home can greatly improve the air quality.
Keeping some green, leafy friends in each room of your house or workplace can be one of the most positive and eye-appealing pathways to cleaner air.
NASA argues that houseplants have the ability to safeguard our homes from prevalent household toxins like ammonia, formaldehyde, and benzene.
It’s been suggested that having one plant per 100 square feet of space is the best way to ensure cleaner air within the home. Recommended plants include the Peace Lily and Lady Palm.
These plants also do more than just rid the air of pollutants. They can keep temperatures cooler, reduce carbon dioxide levels, and help manage humidity levels within your home.
All of these tasks help contribute to cleaner air for you and your family.
4. Install Trickle Vents
Installing trickle vents is one of many eco-friendly renovations you can make to your house. Trickle Vents help purify air flow and cycle the air you breathe inside your home.
A trickle vent is are typically installed on the head of a window or door. It can be directly fitted to the frame or sometimes is fitted into the opening sash of a window.
Some windows and doors are already designed to accept trickle frames, others will require a frame extension. You will have to check your own windows at home to see what work will need to be done.
5. Using Beeswax Candles for Cleaner Air
Scented candles are already known as a great way to bring comfort and serenity into a home. If you use beeswax candles, they’ll have a benefit even in addition to that.
Burning a beeswax candle ionizes the air in the candle’s vicinity. It neutralizes toxic compounds and contaminants, creating cleaner air for your home.
Beeswax candles burn with almost no smoke, and are even helpful to asthmatics and those with allergies: they remove dust from the air.
If you’re currently using paraffin candles in your home, you should immediately switch to beeswax candles. Paraffin candles are made from petroleum release soot and other chemicals into the air when burned.
If you’re looking for cleaner air at home, beeswax candles are the way to go.
6. Invest In An Air Purifier
An air purifier is a machine that helps to eliminate contaminants in the air of a room. There are two types of air purifiers on the market.
Active air purifiers use ionization to help clean the air.
Passive air purifiers use air filters within the machine to remove pollutants. These are argued to be more efficient since they keep dust and particle matter permanently removed from the air and trapped in the filters.
There are many great purifiers available on the market. You can read a detailed review of one of the most popular air purifiers, the GermGuardian AC4825 and learn more about the positive results.
7. Adding Essential Oils
A study from Weber State University indicates that essential oils can have a highly effective rate of killing airborne bacteria. A mix of several essential oils (called Thieves’ Oil) had a 99.96% kill rate against airborne bacteria.
Essential oils include things like cinnamon, oregano, rosemary, clove, and so forth. In the presence of these oils, bacteria and other harmful chemicals can’t survive.
Adding a mix of essential oils to soaps and general detergents can help you bring fresher, cleaner air into your home.
Working Towards Cleaner Air
Clean air in your home and your workplace should be a priority.
We spend 90% of our waking life in one of these two places. Having cleaner air in our environment is one of the most important factors in our overall health.
With rising air pollution around the world, the responsibility is greater for us to do good in our own spheres of influence.
There are a million ways to healthier, cleaner living. We can all do our part in going green.
If you’re interested in learning other ways you can improve the environment of your home or workplace, check out our blog.
