Keeping a Healthy Home-
Ventilation
"An approach to lowering the concentrations
of indoor air pollutants in your home is to increase the amount
of outdoor air coming indoors."
—EPA,
Improving Indoor Air Quality
"Because new houses are built to a high
level of energy efficiency and older homes are being
updated, the amount
outside air exchanged with inside air is dropping
dramatically in homes throughout the United States. The
upside is
that you're being energy-efficient. The downside
is your breathing the same air over and over, and allergens
do
build up in the house."
—National
Jewish Medical and Research Center
Ventilation
Ventilation requirements
were lowered in the '70's in order to improve energy efficiency
and to save on
fuel costs. Unfortunately, after lowering
the requirements, there was an increase in environmental
illnesses and "sick building syndrome". Recently, though,
ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Condiitoning
Engineers)
has
recommended
increasing the
amount of fresh air in commercial buildings and homes. By
increasing
the amount of fresh air circulating throughout a building,
concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and mycotoxins
(mVOCs) from
molds can be diluted to levels where they do not pose
a health threat.
Ventilation, though, is only a part of the
solution. For a complete solution to indoor air quality, you
will need to have good air filtration, humidity controls and
protect the building envelope itself. For more information, search
through the menu options to the right.
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