Indoor Air Quality Testing - What's In
The Air You Breathe?
Since everyone spends up to 90 % of their lives indoors, it is important to know what you are breathing by conducting indoor air quality testing. This is because there are many pollutants in your home that can make the air toxic for some people. In fact, the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that the air in homes and businesses can hold up to five times more pollutants than the air outside. This is why many people have trouble with different respiratory illnesses, and other health issues. In fact more people today have respiratory illnesses than ever.
For those with severe allergies it is important that they carry out indoor air quality testing. If your allergies are worse indoors rather than outdoors, then you are allergic to something inside your home. If it is worse at work than in your home, then you need to test the air at work. Indoor air quality testing should be conducted at work if you can and at the same time you should test your indoor air at home. Then compare the results to see if there are any common allergens that are prevalent at work and at home.
So how do you go about determining what is in the air you breathe in your home or office? The first thing you need to do is purchase air quality test kits that you can find at any large home improvement store or online to conduct indoor air quality testing. These kits can test for a variety of things, such as radon, yeast, fungi (mold), formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide. These are the major tests that should be conducted to either eliminate or identify high concentrations of these air pollutants in the indoor air you breathe.
Once you have completed the indoor air quality testing, send off the results to the lab listed on the test kit. When the results come back, compare the results for your home and/or office to determine if there are indicators of possible strong pollutants. If you have indicators that lead to a specific pollutant, use the appropriate test kit and test for that pollutant again. The reason is for verification and if the tests comeback with the same results, then this is the pollutant that you need to eradicate from you home or office.
If your allergic symptoms ease after taking all the appropriate actions, then you have found the problem. If not, then you will need to go back to your original testing to look for additional indoor air pollutants that may be the cause. This whole process can take months, so do not expect overnight results. For example if you are allergic to cats and you remove the cat from your home, it can take up to six months for all the cat dander to be removed as well.
Indoor air quality testing takes time if you do it yourself. However, you can always hire a company who will test your air and determine the results faster, but this can be costly. Any way you look at it, it can take months to completely remove most pollutants from your home.