Indoor Air Quality impacts everyone, including those who may be more vulnerable – children, the elderly, and people with health conditions like asthma and heart disease. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. Learn about common pollutants and how to address them. Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can help reduce your risk of indoor health concerns. For example, source control, ventilation and filtration can reduce exposure to indoor pollutants and improve indoor air quality. Click here to learn more.
What is Indoor Air Quality?
Protect Yourself and Your Family
Indoor air quality refers to characteristics of the air in buildings and structures that can impact the health, comfort, performance and productivity of the people inside.
Why is IAQ Important?
- On average people spend 90 percent of their time indoors.
- Indoor levels of some pollutants are often several times higher than what they are outdoors.
- Poor IAQ is an environmental risk factor that can worsen health outcomes, decrease productivity and increase building maintenance expenses and other building-related costs.
What are some of the common sources or factors that can impact indoor air?
- Occupants and their behaviors and actions.
- Consumer products, building materials, and furnishings.
- Soil gases, such as radon.
- Temperature, moisture and humidity.
- Maintaining building systems, such as plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
- Outdoor air.
- Building characteristics, such as size, age and design.
What are best practices for improving and maintaining IAQ?
- Source control: Eliminate or reduce sources of indoor pollution.
- Improved ventilation: Bring in fresh air to dilute indoor pollutants and exhaust them to the outdoors.
- Filtration and air cleaning: Use filtration and supplemental air cleaning to help remove pollutants from the air.