Basic health needs don’t get any more basic than the quality of the air we breathe.
It’s why the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) encourages everyone to start off 2017 on a healthy track – and learn some basics about indoor air quality.
Air pollution is not limited to outdoors. It can happen indoors in our homes, workplaces and even in our vehicles. Common health problems associated with poor air quality include heart and other cardiovascular diseases as well as asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Those of us vulnerable to indoor air quality problems are seniors, children, people with disabilities, people with existing health conditions and communities impacted by poor housing conditions. Many young children spend most of their time at home, making indoor air quality especially important for them.
Tips for maintaining healthy living indoor air quality include:
· Adopt a smoke-free policy in your home, workplace and car.
· Have the furnace and any other gas appliance inspected and serviced yearly.
· Ensure that a home or office has ventilation (bring outdoor air to the inside). If there is a ventilation system, make sure it is operating properly and filters are changed regularly.
· Have chimneys and fuel burning appliances inspected.
· Install and maintain both a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector.
· Use appliances such as grills and generators outdoors only and away from windows and doors.
· Put doormats at all home and building entries so you don’t trek in dust and dirt.
Another potential problem with indoor air is radon. It’s the number one cause of cancer after smoking and according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it kills more than 21,000 Americans every year.
NMDOH encourages New Mexicans, especially smokers and former smokers, to test their homes for radon. That’s because breathing in radon can increase the risk of lung cancer. This risk is much higher when a person is exposed to radon and also smokes.
Radon testing is easiest and most effective in winter when we tend to keep our door and windows shut in order to stay warm, and it doesn’t matter if the home is old or new, the gas can still build up without you suspecting a thing. The only way to know if radon gas is seeping into your home is by testing for it.
Radon test kits can be purchased at local hardware and home improvement stores and are typically priced around $25. You just follow the directions on the packaging for the proper placement of the device and where to send the device after the test to get your reading.
Testing is easy and only takes a few minutes. If you do have a radon problem in your home, the EPA says radon reduction systems work, and they are not too costly. Some radon reduction systems can reduce radon levels in your home by up to 99%. Even very high levels can be reduced to acceptable levels.
For more information about indoor air quality and radon visit our newly redesigned environmental public health tracking website, https://nmtracking.org.