Your home is your refuge. It’s where your family is, your favorite things, and is where you return to rest every night. A home should be a space that’s safe for you, your family and even your pets! But millions across the world are affected by homes that may be worsening their health due to unseen threats that combine to create what is known as toxic house syndrome.
Learn more about toxic house syndrome, its causes, and its solutions!
What Is Toxic House Syndrome?
One of the biggest problems during the changing seasons is the exchange of fresh air circulating through your house in the warmer months for stale, polluted air circulating inside the home during the colder months. Based on a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 90 percent of our time is spent indoors and indoor air quality can be up to 50 times more polluted than outdoor air. Even worse, poor air quality in the home accounts for more than 80 percent of people who are at risk for respiratory conditions.
When the air in your home begins to contribute to acute illness, or exacerbates chronic illness, your home may be described as having “toxic house syndrome.” Some other terms for this may be toxic home syndrome or sick building syndrome.
Compromised indoor air quality (IAQ) can wreak havoc on your health, make your home feel like it’s not comfortable to live in, or lead to serious long-term issues!
Common Signs of Toxic House Syndrome
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air quality is one of the top five environmental risks to public health! Shutting the windows and breathing in the same stale air for months at a time can cause a whole host of health issues. Some common signs of poor air quality include:
- Coughing
- Watery eyes
- Dizziness
- Sneezing
- Fatigue
- Headaches
With the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to overlook environmental issues in your home when symptoms of toxic house syndrome fall in line with the virus affecting millions across the world. Likewise, over the years, toxic house syndrome has often had its symptoms falsely attributed to common colds or flus that wax and wane throughout the seasons!
While we’re supposed to be spending more time indoors and away from the general public, the easiest way to identify if your symptoms are a virus or toxic house syndrome are to see if you feel better after spending time away from the house. For acute respiratory symptoms, you may notice improvement after just a few hours out and about – such as taking a walk through your local park or going for a drive where you can enjoy some time away from the house.
Is Your Basement the Culprit?
The area of your home that has the least amount of ventilation is your basement. Basements tend to have the highest levels of humidity in the home and is the perfect breeding ground for the catalysts behind toxic house syndrome. Some of the most common reasons that your home may be toxic to your health are:
Overall Lack of Ventilation
Sometimes the lack of ventilation alone is the source of toxic house syndrome. Proper ventilation can control indoor humidity and air born contaminants, but most homes have a closed loop ventilation system that simply recirculates the same air in the home over and over again. The recirculation of air causes a buildup of contaminates that will eventually become hazardous and in some cases even deadly.
Stale air full of dust and contaminants may by circulating throughout your home without a chance to escape and be replaced by cleaner air from outside. Our recommended solution is the E-Z Breathe, an easy-to-install device that helps keep air moving and fight against the hazards of stale air in your home.
Mold and Moisture
It’s no secret that mold is a major risk for homeowners. Even a small amount of constant moisture can feed a growth of mold that introduces spores and other contaminants into your home’s air. Breathing air contaminated in this way can sometimes be benign, but it often ranges from producing minor respiratory symptoms to causing major illness that could hospitalize you or your pets!
Fighting back against mold and moisture is a multi-faceted process. Team EverDry in Toledo is ready to help you identify and resolve issues related to invading moisture, keeping your home dry and denying mold the necessary water it needs to thrive.
Team EverDry is here to help!
Don’t wait for your home to become toxic, call EverDry Toledo today and ask about our E-Z Breathe System. It’s a maintenance-free unit that helps protect your home and family from excess moisture, molds, toxins, allergies, and poor air quality. Schedule your free inspection or give us a call at (419) 841-6055 to get started!
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