One of the most shocking things that I’ve ever discovered, is how awful the indoor air quality is in most homes.
Believe it or not, the air in Atlanta during rush hour traffic, may be cleaner than the air in your home. If that information hadn’t been released by the EPA itself, I don’t know that I would have believed it.
This is the statement released by the EPA.
While this should concern you, you can find peace in knowing that there are things you can do to improve the quality of air within your home.
Household Cleaners
There are many things inside the common household that contribute to decreasing air quality. One of the biggest contributors is commercial household cleaners.
- Windex for example, contains chemicals such as ammonium hydroxide, a respiratory irritant and hexoxyethanol, which can affect your organs.
- Scrubbing Bubbles contains DEGBE which is banned in the European Union due to its negative effect on the lungs.
- Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner claims it’s non-toxic but it contains 2-butoxyethanol which can irritate the eyes and cause damage to red blood cells.
This is just to name a few. Commercial cleaners are made up of tons of chemical ingredients. The industry isn’t well regulated, therefore many of the cleaners contain chemicals that aren’t even listed on the label.
Instead of using harmful commercial cleaners, make your own! For windows and mirrors, use a mix of half water and half white vinegar. For showers, fill a 16oz glass spray bottle with 1 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon castile soap, 30 drop tea tree essential oil, 20 drops sweet orange essential oil and 2 cups warm distilled water. Gently shake the bottle before each use. For your kitchen, the white vinegar and water mixture will do just fine.
Grove Collaborative sells essential oils, nice glass spray bottles and other basic cleaning supplies. Sign up with the link above to get a gift set for free with your first order. (Note: the gift set changes regularly, so you may not receive what’s pictured here.)
Air Filtration Systems
In addition to using less chemical cleaners to improve your indoor air quality, we also recommend upgrading your filtration system to include a high quality air cleaner or purifier. Air cleaners help to catch toxins that are too small for a normal pleated air filter. The filters in them usually need to be changed less frequently than normal pleated air filters. UV lights help to remove germs from your air. This can be especially helpful if you have children in public school or asthma/allergy sufferers.
Give us a call today at 770-672-6963 if you’d like to learn more about our air cleaners, air purifiers, UV lights or any of our other services.