indoor air quality

Can Improving Your Indoor Air Quality Improve Your Babies’ Intelligence? Study links Indoor Air Quality and Intelligence

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Can Improving Your Indoor Air Quality Improve Your Babies’ Intelligence? Study links Indoor Air Quality and Intelligence

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants. Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can help reduce your risk of indoor health concerns. (epa.gov)

In a study by the US Environmental Protection Agency titled “Monitoring and reducing exposure of infants to pollutants in house dust,” it was concluded that early contact with pollutants among the very young is associated with higher rates of chronic illness such as asthma, loss of intelligence, ADHD, and cancer in children and adults.

Since babies ingest more dust, they are up to ten times more vulnerable to indoor air pollution exposures commonly found in households such as  pesticides, PAHs, Gram-negative bacteria, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, phthalates, phenols, and other EDCs, mutagens, and carcinogens.  Reducing infant exposures, at this critical time in their development, may reduce lifetime health costs, improve early learning, and increase adult productivity.

One recommendation to reduce infant exposure to duct and other pollutants, was to use a HEPA air filter in your home.  Other recommendations included included using a vacuum cleaner with dirt finders and HEPA filtration, replace sheets with allergy control bedding covers, and use high-quality door mats.

The PureSept® Bypass HEPA Air Cleaner sold and installed by One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning is a true bypass High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter just like those used in hospitals, clean rooms and microchip manufacturing plants. The PureSept HEPA filtration system uses a unique combination of three filters to purify and scrub the air in your home. It works with any home HVAC system and provides the optimum air purification solution for those who suffer from allergies or asthma, while controlling smoke, pollen, dust, and other particulates.

If you are interested in HEPA Air Cleaners, or other Indoor Air Quality solutions, and would like to speak with an indoor air quality professional, please call 913-829-1505.

Study Finds MicroPower Guard Dramatically Reduces Risk of Influenza Infection

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micropowerguard air cleanerIn a study done by Environmental Health and Engineering, Inc.* researchers set out to measure the potential exposure benefits of whole house high efficiency in-duct air cleaners for sensitive subpopulations such as those who have asthma or severe allergies.  The results indicated that the use of high efficiency in-duct air cleaners provide an effective means of controlling allergen levels not only in a single room, like a portable air cleaner, but the whole house.

The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation recommends the use of portable air cleaners in bedrooms of asthmatics.  While the use of portable air cleaners in the bedroom did prove to be beneficial in the study, the researchers found that in reality, the use of high efficiency in-duct air cleaners provide a more effective means of controlling allergen levels and the influenza virus not only in a single room, but the whole house.

Perhaps the most interesting result from the study involves the estimation of the risk of influenza infection from an individual who remains in the home over the course of a five-day infectious period with someone who currently has the illness.  Since influenza can trigger asthma, the researchers were interested in the effect of high efficiency filters on the transmission of the illness.

The study assumed that the infectious individual spent one-half of their time in the bedroom and the other half in the family room, while a healthy individual spent 69% of the corresponding time indoors at the home during which they were exposed to the house-wide average concentration of quanta in air.  For this scenario, the risk of infection by influenza was greater than 30% in the ventilation configuration with a portable air cleaner in both of the two rooms frequented by the infectious individual.  In comparison, the risk of infection was less than 4% for the high efficiency in-duct system.

The “high efficiency air cleaner” used in this study was a high efficiency electrostatic air cleaner with HEPA-like removal efficiency for aerosols.  One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning has this product for your home as well as more options that add even more protection for the health of your indoor air.

If you are interested in options on high efficiency filters please call 913-829-1505.

*Control of asthma triggers in indoor air with air cleaners: a modeling analysis, Published on August 6,  2008.

Popular Psychiatrist Recommends Annual Duct Cleaning and Hepa Filters to Help Combat Depression

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Dr. Kelly Brogan, a Board certified Psychiatrist and a practitioner of integrative holistic medicine, said in her book “A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives,” that in order to combat the toxic fumes from furniture, electronics, and household goods that can affect your health people should do the following:

  1. Ventilate your home well and install HEPA air filters if possible.
  2. Change your air-conditioning and heating filters every three to six months.
  3. Get the ducts cleaned yearly.
  4. Avoid air deodorizers and plug-in room fresheners.
  5. Request that people take off their shoes when they enter your house.
  6. Reduce toxic dust and residues that you cannot see or smell from furniture, electronics, and textiles by using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter.
  7. Keep as many plants in your home as possible, as they naturally detoxify the environment.  Spider plants, aloe vera, chrysanthemums, Gerbera daisies, Boston ferns, English ivies, and philodendrons are good choices.  Use fifteen to twenty plants per 1,800 square feet.

Dr. Brogan’s book links nutrition, toxic environments and activity levels to depression as well as other common health issues.  Her goals for people to help to heal themselves include:

  • Introduce a new way of nourishing your body through the foods you eat.
  • Green your home and environment, divorcing yourself from the modern love affair with toxicants.
  • Incorporate a daily meditative practice into your life, one that stimulates the body’s natural relaxation response and paves the way for lasting transformation.
  • Prioritize getting routine restful sleep and adequate exercise throughout the week.

At One Hour, we have seen the benefits of cleaning the air in your home.  Our homes are so “tight” that indoor air quality is much more polluted than outdoor air due to the chemicals in our homes.  For this reason, we offer duct cleaning, duct sealing and high quality HEPA and MicroPower Air Filters to clean the air of toxins, dust and allergens.

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