Is your home polluted?
People often think of pollution in terms of outdoor air quality, when smog, smoke from wildfires, pollen, and other irritants can trigger allergic reactions. But allergens – substances that cause an excessive immune response – can be in surprisingly plentiful supply indoors as well, and the allergy symptoms you and your family are suffering can lead to misery. This need not be the case, as indoor allergens can be controlled to a significant degree, keeping everyone more comfortable. One of the areas people often forget is the air filters in their HVAC system, which remove allergenic particles from your home’s air, vastly improving indoor air quality.
Understanding Allergies
An allergic reaction happens when your body senses a threat from an inhaled, contacted, or ingested substance. Your immune system sends a flood of a substance called histamine throughout the body, and you can have symptoms ranging from itchy eyes, nose, and throat to coughing, sneezing, and rashes. People with certain chronic conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at risk for life-threatening allergic reactions. Some people take immunotherapy shots that teach the immune system to accept specific allergens. Others can just take an over-the-counter nasal spray, eye drop, or allergy pill. But allergy symptoms can range from a mild annoyance to debilitating symptoms that cause sufferers to lose time from school or work. For some extremely sensitive people, inhaling the wrong kind of particle can lead to a trip to the hospital.
Indoor Air Pollution
Most people spend a shocking 90% of their time indoors, in environments ranging from schools and workplaces to stores and even our own homes. Allergens can hide anywhere, but upholstered surfaces, carpets, pet beds, ordinary household dust, and even your HVAC system can collect airborne allergens. People and pets can bring in allergens like pollen and smoke particles on our hair or clothing. Everyone likes to think that they keep a clean house, but the truth is, we all have dust, dust mites, mold, and pollen brought in from outdoors, and many of us have pets we love and would never give up, but their hair and dander can also affect indoor air quality.
How Air Filters Improve Air Quality
Of course, it’s important to clean, but there are other important factors to consider in order to ensure that your indoor air is as clean as possible. Don’t neglect your HVAC air filters! It’s so easy to forget, but set a reminder in your calendar to change your air filters every three months at a minimum. And if your family has pets or suffers from allergies, consider changing them as often as once a month.
Use a high-quality air filter, such as a MERV 13 air filter. MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, and these are the most effective air filters you can buy to keep your home’s air as clean as possible. Air filters trap airborne particles, keeping them from circulating throughout your home. MERV-13 is the highest MERV rating you can get for home use and can trap up to 95 percent of the particles suspended in your home’s air, including allergens and bacteria – particles as tiny as 0.3 microns.
Using an air filter this powerful can protect your family from asthma attacks, worsening COPD, and allergic symptoms from mild to severe – by removing the particles that set your immune system on high alert. When shopping for air filters, remember to check the removal levels and particle size for each brand you’re considering. MERV 13 air filters have a proven reputation of providing the ultimate level of allergen removal for residential applications.
Additional Strategies for Allergy Relief
Using the best air filter will certainly go a long way toward preventing allergens from getting into your home, but it’s also important to maintain rigorous cleaning routines.
- Start a new habit: Require everyone who enters your home to remove their shoes. You’d be amazed how much allergen-laden residue people track in from outside. Keeping shoes as close to the entry door as possible minimizes the chance of allergens getting in to begin with.
- Upholstered surfaces and carpets trap amazing numbers of allergens. Vacuum these frequently, and empty the canister every time.
- Dust frequently using a cloth or duster that traps particles; be sure you’re not just stirring up the dust and letting it back into the air. Take the duster outside, and shake it out.
- Look up! Dust or vacuum HVAC vents, ceiling fans, and check for any pesky cobwebs along the edges of the ceiling. Check overhead lighting for accumulated dust.
- Bathe pets regularly. Ask your vet about allergen-reducing shampoos.
- Wash pet beds regularly.
- Severe allergy sufferers might want to consider showering and changing clothes as soon as you’re home for the day.
Summing it Up
Allergy symptoms can range from mildly uncomfortable to life-threatening, and it’s important to do what you can to minimize their proliferation in your home. New cleaning and self-care routines are helpful for controlling allergens, but don’t overlook the importance of using the MERV 13 air filter in your HVAC system, to prevent the most and the tiniest airborne particles from getting into your home. Everyone will benefit from better indoor air quality.
