Indoor air quality
The air inside our homes can contain some potentially harmful substances... everything from mold to formaldehyde. Since we take about 10,000 breaths per day and spend 80 percent of our time indoors, we need to pay attention to the quality of that indoor air.
There are three important issues in assessing indoor air quality:
1) The strength of the pollutant.
The number of potentially harmful substances in your home is huge,
but most of them only become dangerous when they're highly concentrated
or combined with other harmful substances.
2) The rate of ventilation.
The better ventilated your home is, the less likely you are to have
high concentrations of a harmful substance.
3) Individual sensitivity.
Each person has different sensitivities to pollutants. What irritates one person may not affect someone else.
There are two ways to control indoor air pollutants...you can keep them out of the house in the first place, or you can remove them once they're there. By using both approaches you can prevent most problems. You can reduce the concentration...and the threat... of indoor air pollution by keeping your home clean and well-ventilated.
The Energy Adviser has written a number of articles about air quality and ventilation. Find the articles here.