How to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution

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Indoor air pollution is a major problem that people are becoming more aware of as new discoveries are made on the long term effects that our air has on our quality of life. Humidity can contribute to indoor air pollution in many ways, which can end up causing a whole slew of potential respiratory issues. Using the indoor temperature and humidity monitor to know the indoor humidity situation can help us to find the problems and make some actions to reduce or solve the indoor air pollution.


Illnesses Caused by Poor Indoor Air Quality

A lot has been discovered about the effects that air quality has on the health of human beings. While this is true, some of the most common illnesses caused by poor air conditions inside of a business or home may come as a surprise to some people. Many people seem to think that it is only external factors that come into a home or business that cause issues with the air.

In actuality, a lot of indoor air pollution is caused by humidity. For those who have preexisting breathing issues, such as asthma or severe allergies, the possibility of a greater reaction to air pollution is heightened. Here is a list of the illnesses caused by poor indoor air quality:

  1. Chronic Respiratory Disease
  2. Acute Respiratory Disease
  3. Heart Disease/Stroke
  4. Lung Cancer

13 Easy Ways to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution

You can reduce your exposure to air pollution in a number of highly effective ways.

Dehumidify

First of all, you will want to find a way to dehumidify your home or place of business in the most effective way you can. It is good to have a built-in fan inside of bathrooms and to pick up damp or wet cleaning cloths from surfaces in order to prevent mildew from developing that could potentially spread elsewhere in your home.

Air Flow

Do you know how poor ventilation and humidity can contribute to indoor air pollution? It can contribute by generating a potentially harmful environment for the lungs. By opening the windows occasionally, you will be able to expose any closed-off rooms to free-flowing air that will cut down the humidity. This is the most important for rooms, such as bathrooms or kitchens, that may be exposed to more moisture more often.

Weekly Bedding Washes

Washing your bedding benefits you in more ways than one. Even though washing blankets may seem to be more of a personal hygiene issue, it is also something that will help prevent air pollution in the home in general. What it does is cut down on outdoor allergens that we bring in from the outside world by removing them regularly from the place we sleep.

Remove Shoes Before Entering

Before you enter your home entirely, it is best to remove your shoes at the door. Prepare a special place where you can put shoes and slip on some slippers that you only wear inside the home instead. This will prevent you from bringing in outside contaminants and trekking them all over the floor.

Clean the Clutter

Larger homes especially tend to have the ability to accumulate a ton of extra junk. Try organizing your home and removing all unnecessary boxes, bags, and other clutter that accumulates dust and invites the possibility of your objects secretly harboring mold spores.

Invest In Flooring

By removing all of the carpeting in your home and replacing it will hardwood or linoleum, you are making things a lot easier to keep clean within the home. Carpet is extremely susceptible to liquids contaminating the hairs with mold spores when things like spills are not properly cleaned up. Pet hair, dust, and other contaminants can also be accumulated in carpet and get kicked up on a daily basis into our air space.

No More Masking

Do not mask odors with things like aerosol sprays or other chemicals. If you are seeking to cut down on air pollutants, the answer is not to fill your breathing space will even more harmful pollutants. 20% of Americans have reported irritations from using air sprays as a means of masking odors within the home or business.

Vacuum Your Zone

Vacuuming has a bad rap for kicking up dust into the air. However, when you are on top of vacuuming often, this is much less common. Most vacuums also have a very good air filter, which prevents the dust from escaping as it exhausts itself. By dusting often, you will effectively cut down on the amount of dust and outside contaminants that settle on your home’s floors each day.

No Indoor Smoking

The indoor pollutant level of a home is three times higher than that of a typical household for those who choose to smoke indoors on a regular basis. Aside from the highly increased possibility of the inhabitants of a smoking home being exposed to harmful second-hand smoke, it also adds to the overall pollution that a home typically already has.

Utilize Exhaust Fans

There are exhaust fans within a bathroom and kitchen for a reason. The exhaust fans within a bathroom may help to minimize the humidity of a bathroom, but the kitchen exhaust fan does something a little bit different. The exhaust fan of a kitchen is usually located directly above a stove and is a helpful tool for minimizing smoke when someone is cooking. It is advised to use these fans as often as you cook on the stove’s top.

Doormat Use

Taking off your shoes at the door is a good way to prevent air pollution, but not everyone has a household where everyone will adhere to this rule. In the very least, it is good to have occupants of a home utilize a doormat when they are at the door to wipe their feet as they enter. By doing so, there will be less of a mess made and fewer contaminants that could potentially get kicked up into the air and breathed in.

Replace Air Filters

Air filters are a part of the home that are easy to forget all about until they end up clogging and causing a weakened airflow. When an air filter is clogged, that means that it is well past the time that it ought to have been replaced with a new filter. Filters do an awesome job at reducing air pollution within a home. The majority of air filters should be changed monthly within a home. If they can be changed after a longer duration, they will usually state this fact in their instructions for use.

Pet Contaminants

There is not a whole lot that pet owners can do to prevent their pets from rolling around in potentially dangerous outside contaminants. What a pet owner can do is bathe them often. Most of the time all that a pet will track in will be dust or pollen, but it is best err on the side of caution and keep your pets as clean as you possibly can.

pet at home

How Can Humidity Contribute to Indoor Air Pollution?

The way that humidity can contribute to indoor air pollution is by way of mold. Harmful microorganisms grow in areas that have prolonged humidity to them. When you consider the question “How does poor ventilation and humidity contribute to indoor air pollution?” it is important to get to the root of the issue. It is the simple fact that having very little airflow while a room remains stagnantly humid invites a prime living condition for mildew, especially if the area is kept at room temp or warmer. Warm and damp areas are a prime location for mold to be likely to grow, which can create a problem that is difficult to control once it starts. Mold contaminates the air in a very dangerous way, depending on the type of mold that has formed. So we need to monitor the temperature and humidity to control mold to reduce the air pollution sources.

And you can select a temperature and humidity monitor to help to monitor, such as ThermoPro Hygrometer Thermometer Humidity Gauge.


What’s the Ideal Humidity to Cut Down the Risk of Indoor Air Pollution?

The most ideal humidity level within a home or business, in order to cut down on indoor air pollution, will differ depending on a number of factors. For one, the seasons can affect the temperature outside which in turn affects the temperature that should be maintained indoors to combat issues that may be caused by indoor humidity. In Winter, for example, you will want to keep the indoor humidity level at or below 40% when it is 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside. When it is 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside, you will want to lower the humidity level at or below 35%.


Humidity is no joke when you are trying to cut down the possibility of indoor air pollutants caused by mildew growth. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to cut down on the humidity within the home, along with a ton of other contaminant issues.

The ThermoPro thermometer can help with gauging exact temperature and humidity level within your home or business, which can provide a nice way to monitor the indoor temperature and humidity. And you can measure to control the indoor humidity to avoid some air pollution sources.

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