The Consumer Federation of America cites indoor air pollution as a major health problem, and the EPA ranks it amid the top five environmental risks to public health. The place that we want to feel the most secure may make you ill and at the very worse may cause a life threating disease. The EPA has identified over 3,000 substances in indoor air that are potential heath hazards. Lead paint, radon gas, asbestos, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide are the major subscribers to indoor air pollution. According to the EPA, indoor air may be ten times more toxic than outdoor air and over 10,000 people could be killed in a year by indoor air pollution. In 1979 the Surgeon General pointed out that “There is nearly no major chronic disease to which environmental elements do not contribute, directly or indirectly.” In 1985 the Department of Housing and Urban Development required that warning labels be posted in manufactured houses concerning productions that cause indoor air pollution and health problems.
The American Medical Association reports that persons living in new homes have a 45 percent higher incidence of respiratory infection than those living in older homes. The problem with the new homes started with the energy crisis in the seventies. Homes were built tighter and more energy efficient. This efficacy would not grant the house to breath and expel the bad air that accumulates. In the winter the same air would be circulated through out the house.
The main source of lead contamination proceeds to be lead-based paint. Children are at the greatest peril from eating paint chips or breathing paint dust. Adults are exposed more oftentimes in the workplace, peculiarly in construction. Children and adults may be exposed to high amounts of lead paint for the duration of renovations when paint is sanded or burned off. The effects of lead on children is more severe than adults because of a child’s body size and metabolism. Exposure to lead may cause temporary or permanent neurobehavioral and developmental problems. Lead cumulates in the kidneys and liver causing dysfunction and eventual failure. Lead may likewise lead to blood disease. The sensations or changes of lead poisoning includes loss of appetite, irritability, joint pains, fatigue and purple lines on the gums. Lead may be moderately got rid of from the blood stream with EDTA or penicillamine but if it gets into the bone, where it has a half-life of twenty years, it is difficult to ever maintain low blood levels.
Homes built before 1940 may comprise concentrations of lead paint as high as 50 percent, houses built before 1978 are considered at risk. Between 40 and 50 percent of housing in the United States still have lead paint. An XRF analyzer measures the lead content of painted surfaces without removing paint and gives an prompt on-site reading. If you have lead paint the easiest and safest method is to exclusively cover it. Stripping lead paint is highrisk and is regulated by state and local laws.
Radon gas comes from decaying uranium. The uranium changes into radon gas which moves through the soil into the air. When it is mixed with fresh air it gets diluted to low levels that in general pose no threat to ones health. The gas may get trapped in your house and build up to dangerous and insalubrious levels. Surprisingly the gas is not the problem but the microscopic corpuscles that it develops are. As you breath in the atoms they stick to the inside of your lungs. Two of these particles, Polonium 218 and Poloium 214, may release an alpha particle that may harm the lung cells and increase the probability of fabricating lung cancer.
There are various radon testing devices: charcoal canisters and bags, electret-ion-chambers, ceaseless radon monitors, and charcoal liquid scintillation bottles. The test ought to be held in a closed house, and for the best results, over an extended amount of time of time. Two days to three months is the minimum amount of time required and most times an entire year is necessitated for an exact test. Radon levels may modify from day to day and with the change of the seasons.
The best way to deal with unacceptable levels of radon is to seal your foundation and vent the gas away from the house. Some schemes are as simple as installing a drain pipe in the ground then attaching a fan to suck the gas from beneath the house. The cost is normally amidst 500 and 2,000 dollars.
Asbestos has been widely applied for a potpourri of items that require insulating calibers and or fire resistance. Houses built among 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation. Roofing and siding shingles were made of asbestos cement. Asbestos siding is most prevalent in the northern states because of it is insulating qualities. It may be present in textured paint and patching compounds applied on walls and ceiling joints, their use was banned in 1977. Artificial ashes and embers sold for use in gas-fired fireplaces may comprise asbestos. Older merchandise such as stove-top pads may have numerous asbestos compounds. Walls and floors around woodburning stoves may be protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheets. Asbestos may be found in some vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives. Hot water and steam pipes in older houses may be coated with an asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape. Oil and coal furnaces and door gaskets may have asbestos insulation.
In 1972 the EPA declared that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Any exposure to the fibers involves a lot of health risk. Asbestos may cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Smokers that are exposed to asbestos are five times more at risk of constructing lung cancer than a non-smoker. It may take from ten to thirty years after exposure for health troubles to develop. Most persons who contract lung cancer and mesothelioma die within two years and there is no known heal for asbestosis.
If you think that asbestos may be in your home, do not panic! Usually, the best thing to do is to leave it alone. Asbestos material in good condition will not release fibers. There is no risk unless fibers are released and inhaled into the lungs. Disturbing it may develop a health hazard where none existed before. If asbestos material is damaged, or if you are going to make changes in your home that might trouble it, repair or remotion ought to be done by a professional. Before you have your home remodeled, find out whether asbestos materials are present.
Formaldehyde is a colorless pungent gas that may be suffocating and poisonous in high dosages. It is emitted in construction materials and buyer productions that comprise formaldehyde-based glues, resins, preservatives and bonding agents. It was also an ingredient in home insulation foam applied until the early eighties. Formaldehyde may be found in glue, paint preservatives, particle-board, hardwood plywood paneling and medium density fiberboard. Unvented widgets such as gas stoves and kerosene space heaters may also emit formaldehyde fumes.
Over exposure to formaldehyde may cause watery eyes, burning in the throat and eyes, nausea, skin rash, coughing, tiredness, exuberant thirst, nosebleeds, insomnia, disorientation and difficultness in breathing. High concentrations may trigger attacks in asthmatics and may cause cancer. There is a study that formaldehyde may be a factor in sudden infant death syndrome.
Products fabricated with formaldehyde will release gas for two to five years. Sunshine will break down the gas much more rapidly, but heat and humidity will increase the amount of gas freed into the air. It is best to check with the manufacturer to find out if formaldehyde was applied in the product. Sealing the material with paint, lacquers or varnish will decrease the emissions, as a last resort get rid of the offending materials. Try to stay clear from buying pressed wood productions and buy real wood
furniture and building materials.
Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of poisoning in the United States, more than 200 deaths a year are attributed to carbon monoxide. Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that interferes with the delivery of oxygen through the body. At low concentrations it may cause fatigue in healthful humans and chest pain in persons with heart disease. At higher concentrations you may experience impaired imagination and coordination, headaches, dizziness, confusedness and nausea. At very high concentrations you may become unconscious, after that if you do not receive oxygen then you will die.
Back-drafting from furnaces, unvented kerosene and gas space heaters, leaking chimneys and furnaces, gas water heaters, wood and gas stoves, fireplaces and even automobile exhaust from attached garages may emit carbon monoxide. Make sure your home is ventilated if you use anything with gas or kerosene. Be sure your flue is open when using the fireplace and undertake to burn hardwood. Hardwoods burn hotter and form less creosote. Inspect the chimney each year and fix any leaks promptly. Purchase a carbon monoxide detector at any home supply store.
We have the most eminent general of living in the world but a heap of of the merchandise that make life so comfortable have deadly beneath tones. As consumers we need to be educated to the health hazards that we face everyday. Education may only come from being informed and we can not count on the manufacturers and merchants who sells goods at retail to tell us everything that we need to know. We must take the time to investigate the determinations of doctors, scientists and health organizations to protect ourselves and our families.
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