The Harsh Reality is that we North Americans have moved indoors and indoor air pollution has become a very real issue.
If I were to say "Air Pollution", what would you picture in your mind? I bet you would immediately think of big cities or factories spewing poison into the air from huge smoke stacks. Yes, this is a very real problem and needs to be addressed but .....
We have our priorities wrong! It is the quality of our indoor air that should concern us most.
Don't you agree?
What happened to change our indoor environment? The US Census indicates that in 1930, as much as 80% of Americans lived on farms. But by 1950 (only 20 years later) 80% of the population was living in the city. We moved from outdoors to indoors. Today, most people spend more than 90% of their time indoors.
Let's think about this for a moment! Our indoor air pollution, at a minimum, should be as bad as the air outdoors. Does that make sense to you? Now, into this already polluted environment we bring:
hazardous cleaning solutions,
dry-cleaning,
cigarette smoke,
new furniture and carpeting,
modern building materials etc.
Are you beginning to get the picture? I'm sure you have heard that your indoor air is supposed to be much worse than the air outside. Now you are beginning to see why.
To Quote Marilyn Chase from a December '98 Wall Street Journal article,
“Wall to wall carpet, poorly ventilated fireplaces, kerosene heaters, mold and bacterial toxins, dust mites... an almost endless collection of highly allergenic products have invaded our homes, and we have sealed them in with deadly precision."
Let's examine some of the issues that arise from indoor air pollution:
Some well known illnesses such as Legionnaires' disease, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and humidifier fever, have been attributed to specific building problems.
