The car’s windows are rolled down. You’re sitting beside an enthusiastic smoker with a lit cigarette pinched between his fingers. You might say something like:
“(cough, cough) Excuse me, may I make a request? I don’t like being around cigarette smoke. Would you be willing to pull over and smoke somewhere else. I’ll wait until you’re done.”
Or you might be too irritated not to give the smoker a piece of your mind.
This is an example of a tangible situation where you truly care about the indoor air quality.
Your Breathing Zone
The air you breathe in your house, at your workplace or even inside your car is a dynamic system. You, your skin, the mucous membranes covering your eyes and respiratory tract is constantly exposed to this dynamic indoor air system.
Besides the smoking scene in the opening of the article, most of us don’t think much about the air quality of the space we live and work in. Certain environmental hazards like pollution are not visible to the naked eye or detected by our sensory system. But they are as important as the emotional effects, in inducing or influencing the pattern of illnesses and allergies in our bodies.
Environmental medicine is a relatively new field of practice and research that relates to the recognition, treatment and prevention of illnesses induced by exposure to agents encountered in the air. These environmental factors include air pollution. Recent studies have made it very clear that adverse health effects are associated with air pollution.
Upper respiratory complaints (infections in the nose, sinuses or throat) and lower respiratory infections (infection in the lungs and lower airways) have become very frequent in recent years. They affect millions of people each year and can potentially be life-threatening. Allergies affecting the respiratory system, e.g. asthma and rhinitis (aka hay fever) are also becoming more and more frequent.
The detrimental impact of air pollution on our health and wellness is not limited to respiratory conditions. Since the increase of air pollution, many chronic illnesses are going up in incidence. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are on the rise. The number of people experiencing autoimmune disorders such as lupus and psoriasis is skyrocketing. A recent research study showed a connection between exposure to air pollutant and brain development as well as an increased risk of lower cognitive function among children.
Indoor air pollutants are generally grouped into the following categories:
Molds: Excess moisture
Solvents: Cleaning and maintenance chemicals, personal care and hobbies
Hobbies Materials: Glue, spray paint
Pesticides: Borax and other agents used to control ants, cockroaches and mites
Smoke: Cigarettes, hookah, weed
Pet dander: Skin cells that are shed by animals with fur or feathers
Gases: Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ozone
Considering that we can be exposed to these pollutants on a daily basis, there are two ways to lower the pollutant burden on your body:
– Reduce exposure and intake
– Dissipate and mobilize what is already stored in the body
The following tips fall into either category to help protect us better against poor indoor air quality:
1. Exercise
Exercise may be the best defense against indoor air pollution. Unless you are suffering from a cardiovascular illness, your arterial blood is saturated with oxygen. Exercise helps increase the supply of oxygen and drive it into your cells. In addition, just like exercise mobilizes fat away from your cells and into your blood stream for more energy, it also mobilizes stored pollutants, reducing its total burden on your body.
2. Get Fresh Air
We spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors. So, it does make sense that our exposure to pollutants is higher indoors. Ventilating your home by getting fresh air in, e.g. opening your windows is a simple thing you can do to freshen the air. However, this method might not be ideal if you live in an urban area where you could potentially introduce additional air pollutants into your home or if you live in very cold climates. In such cases, high-quality air purifiers and HVAC filters can help reduce indoor air pollution.
3. Reduce Indoor Sources of Air Pollution
Think of all the sources of air pollution within your environment.
Do you cook with a gas stove?
Gas stoves can cause high levels of Nitrogen Dioxide and particulate matter.
Do you have an attached garage?
Attached garages can introduce harmful pollutants and toxins into our home, compromising the air we breathe. They may also carry one of the biggest risks to Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
Do you or anyone within your household smoke?
Do you use a lot of cleaning chemicals?
Have you purchased new furniture, installed new flooring or done renovations?
Off-gassing from new or renovation materials in confined spaces may be a source of harmful air pollutants.
How close is your home to a major highway?
Do you live in a house or an apartment?
Maintaining negative pressure to increase ventilation within an apartment may contribute to contamination from neighbors (e.g. tobacco smoke).
4. Include Antioxidants in Your Diet
Waste that cannot be completely degraded must be detoxified and eliminated from our system. Our body cells have a mechanism of detoxifying the toxic molecules. Consuming antioxidants present in the food we eat can neutralize free radicals and reduce the likelihood of oxidative stress cause by air pollutants.
Vegetables such as sweet potatoes, artichokes and red cabbage are the most abundant sources of antioxidants. Other significant sources of antioxidants include cod-liver oil, blueberries and dark chocolate.
Most of the inhaled Volatile Compounds (VOCs) from indoor air intake have relatively short half-lives in humans (in the range of minutes to hours for the first elimination phase). They normally leave the body within days. Unfortunately, if we keep inhaling them and don’t do anything about reducing their load on our body, they’ll never completely leave our system. To navigate our life journey in best health, we must optimize our lifestyle and environment to take in the best quality air – the most vital component to our survival.