When people think of air quality, they immediately start to think about outdoor air quality and pollution. Although this is extremely important, many people spend a majority of their time either inside their home, another building, or in their car. According to the EPA, indoor pollution is typically two to five times worse than outdoor pollution, creating a toxic environment for those inside. In this month’s blog, we will discuss indoor air pollution and give you some great tips on how to improve it. Don’t forget, Activa could be your first step towards improving your indoor air quality. Our paint uses science, called photocatalysis, which ultimately helps remove indoor toxins and improve air quality.
What Causes Indoor Air Pollution?
In order to fully understand the depth of indoor air quality, let’s first discuss what causes it. Typically, the quality of your air highly depends on the environment you’re in. Indoor air pollution typically derives from poor ventilation, the release of gasses (like using a gas stove), and high temperatures (ovens, hot showers, or turning up the heat in the winter). All of these factors contribute to poor indoor air quality. Learn more about what’s in air in our blog: What germs and pollutants are in air?
Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?
With most people spending hours a day (if not sometimes all day) inside, the quality of the air can affect their wellbeing. Those living with poor indoor air quality tend to experience small symptoms that would be similar to a cold or dust allergy. These symptoms could include irritated eyes, sneezing, headaches, impairment to the respiratory tract, and even nausea. When someone experiences a prolonged period of time under these conditions, they could even develop more health problems such as cancer and heart disease.
While poor air quality can affect you physically, it can affect you mentally as well. The mental health affects of poor air quality can include a decrease in productivity, making it more difficult for anyone to perform. This is why it is extremely important to make sure that the indoor air quality of your home and business is the best that it can be. Not only is it a matter of physical and mental health, but also a matter of productivity and innovation at work.
Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
Now that we have thoroughly discussed what causes indoor air pollution and why it’s important, we can now create a plan to fight back! It should go without saying, but you will never be able to fully eliminate indoor air pollution. However, having a way to prevent and lower its effects could be the difference between a productive and healthy home or business and an unhealthy and unproductive home or business. Check out this list we made of some ways you can start improving your indoor air quality today!
Ventilation
Finding the source of your air pollution is the first step to improving it and this usually involves your HVAC system. Whether it’s old, dirty, or simply needs a quick look through, everyone should have a professional do routine checks on the whole HVAC system at least once per year to make sure that your home and business are getting the best air possible.
Plants
According to a famous NASA study done in 1989, indoor plants are able to clean the air of toxic, cancer-causing pollution and organic compounds such as benzene and formaldehyde. Acting as a constant filter to pollution, why wouldn’t you invest in some plants? They also bring a space to life! Check out this list of the top purifying indoor plants.
Activa Paint
As we’ve mentioned before, our product has made a breakthrough in paint technology. Our paint uses the science of photocatalysis, where either artificial or natural light activates the titanium dioxide in the paint to self-clean itself and help reduce any build-up or toxins on the surface and in the air that passes by the surface, ultimately contributing to the better indoor air quality of your home or business.
Conclusion
Overall, the quality of the air inside your home or business is extremely important to the wellbeing of those inside. Many people tend to push off small things like this until the effects are severe. The last thing you want is to negatively contribute to your or someone’s health due to poor indoor air quality. Remember, improving air quality is a constant battle and cannot be forgotten. There are a variety of ways that you can start to your indoor air quality today. Activa Coating is the fastest, longest lasting way to improve your indoor air quality. Check out our products today!
