You wash your bedding in 130° F or hotter water once a week. You’ve switched from your mother’s brand of tile cleaner to a more lung-friendly alternative. You’ve made a deal with your dog: no more sleeping in the bedroom, in exchange for a little extra playtime after baths and brushings. But be honest. In the midst of your weekly (and monthly, and bimonthly) scrubbings, your mind has wandered: are the benefits of environmental control really worth the effort?

If the latest medical research is any indication, this is no time to retire your vacuum cleaner from active duty.

• Poor indoor air quality may pose a greater threat to health than outdoor pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that indoor air — in our homes, offices, practically anywhere with four walls and a roof — can contain levels of allergens and irritants about two to five times higher than the air outside. Since most of us spend up to 90% of our time inside, that adds up to significant exposure to dirty air.
• Do allergies and asthma run in your family? If you have children, reducing indoor allergens can help prevent them from developing asthma or allergies. Researchers at the University College Galway in Dublin, Ireland, studied children with a family history of asthma. Those who lived in homes with higher levels of indoor allergens were more likely to have symptoms of the disease.
• Long-term exposure to indoor allergens can make your asthma and allergy symptoms worse. According to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the more you’re exposed to an allergen, the more sensitive you will become to that allergen. If you’re allergic to dust mites and your mattress is a four-star dust mite hotel, you risk having increasingly severe reactions to dust mites over time.
• Small changes can make a big difference. Simply adding one-half ounce of bleach to your laundry water can significantly reduce the amount of dust mite proteins in your bedding and clothing, according to a recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Using a small HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter in your office can eliminate 99.9% of the airborne particles in your workspace.
• Effective environmental control can save you time and money. It doesn’t take a team of medical researchers to figure out that if you have asthma and allergies, avoiding environmental triggers is your best insurance against sick days, lost productivity at home and at work, and extra trips to the doctor’s office. The Centers for Disease Control reports that in 1998 alone, allergies cost the United States about $250 million in lost productivity.

The steps you take to control indoor allergens in your home or office — washing the bedding once a week, dusting the blinds, vacuuming regularly — may not be your first choice for how to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. But effective environmental control does offer both immediate and long-term health benefits for you and your family. That’s something to keep in mind the next time you put off your vacuuming for a rainy day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 8:30 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.