Home is your sanctuary. It’s where your heart is. It should be safe and comfortable as it’s a place where you rest and recharge after a long day at work, where you entertain your friends and where your family grows.
But sometimes, even the inside of your home is not safe from health hazards that can affect you and your loved ones. These health hazards can be unknowingly from your indoor air, from your appliances or simply from your lighting. Read on to know how these simple things can affect your home and health.
Indoor air pollution
Staying inside the house doesn’t save you from the air pollution from car emissions and other industrial air pollutants. There are also specific air pollutants from gases and particles that contaminate indoor areas and cause indoor air pollution. These air pollutants can cause significant health risks like respiratory diseases and even cancer.
So what causes household air pollution? The following list can contaminate your indoor air:
- Old paint and old building materials
Asbestos is one of the leading cause of indoor pollution. If your house is old, then there is a high chance that asbestos is present in your old wall coatings. If so, then it’s best to sand off your wall paint and repaint it with a new one. Asbestos has been banned in the US and is no longer present in building materials.
Formaldehyde is another leading air contaminant. Before its ban in the US, formaldehyde is in sealants and wood floors. Consider replacing or repurposing your old wooden flooring to get rid of this contaminant.
- Fireplaces
Fireplaces, if not well-maintained, can become a source of carbon monoxide. And carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that exposure to it can cause severe sickness and even death. However, carbon monoxide from your fireplace is preventable as long as you maintain it for proper exhausting of fumes.
Installing a carbon monoxide detector is also a good idea to know if carbon monoxide is building up inside your home.
- Other sources of air pollutants to look out for are tobacco smoke, mildew, dust, mold, and varnishes inside the house.
An excellent way to combat household air pollution is by having a good ventilation system. This way, you can prevent the buildup of air pollutants and supply your home with fresh air.
Electromagnetic Radiation
Although technology has brought great comfort to day to day life, it does come with a price, one of which is electromagnetic radiation. Your everyday electronic appliances from your phone to your microwave can produce electromagnetic radiation. Exposure to electromagnetic radiation at some certain extent can threaten your health.
Listed below are some common sources of electromagnetic radiation you can find in your household.
- Personal Grooming Appliances
Hair dryers, electric shavers and electric toothbrushes and other personal grooming appliances can emit EMFs as high as 400 mG when turned on. It’s better to minimize the use of these appliances or lower the duration of use as much as possible.
- Kitchen Appliances
You are easily exposed to EMFs in the kitchen. Refrigerators, microwave ovens, dishwashers, and stoves all produce a substantial amount of EMF. To reduce EMF exposure, stand one pace away from appliances or don’t stand too long for too close.
- Wireless Devices
Wireless devices like mobile phones and Wi-Fi routers are an increasingly common source of radiofrequency radiation. In fact, the mobile phones were classified as possibly carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Having a hands-free can keep mobile phones away during phone calls, reducing EMF radiation exposure. Limiting the number and length of calls can also help.
Most of these appliances are ubiquitous parts of a household. You can’t just throw or ban them inside your house just to avoid electromagnetic radiation.
One thing that can help is to upgrade old appliances with new ones. Older devices usually produce higher EMF. Replacing these old machines can decrease EMF radiation by ten times lower. Because of an intensive study on EMF now, engineers are trying to minimize EMF in the creation of new products.
Poor Indoor Lighting
Lighting is as important as your furniture inside your house. Poor lighting can affect not only your eyesight but also your mental and physical health.
Inadequate lighting can cause safety hazard inside your home. It can lead to misjudgment of the position and shape of objects that can cause foot injuries and other accidents. Too much lighting, on the other hand, can cause eye strain and eye discomfort that can lead to headaches and poor concentration. These health hazards are why balanced lighting is a must for a safe home.
The following causes poor lighting in your home:
- Not enough natural light
Natural light is the best light there is. You can utilize this by adding windows to your house. But if this is not feasible and your home only have some windows, you can always improvise. You can place mirrors in front of the windows to reflect and distribute daylight indoors. This way, you can cut off your electric bill while getting your daily dose of Vitamin D.
You can always check out interior design websites or magazines for inspirations on how to efficiently manipulate your indoor space for better indoor lighting.
- Wrong choice of lighting
Headaches and migraines can be due to too much light that causes unwanted glare. Choosing lighting fixtures that best suit your needs should solve problems of glare. Consider using task lighting in your home office if overhead lighting doesn’t work for you. To reduce overhead lighting, use lampshades to diffuse the light it emits. Replacing your old fluorescent lamp with LED lamps can also give a desirable result as LED bulbs mimic natural lights more.
- No standard lighting fixtures
Using different kinds of lamps can cause mismatched lights, some bulbs have a blue cast, others with yellow. Mismatched lights usually happen when you replace light bulbs individually with whatever is available. Always avoid mismatched lights as it is distracting and causes poor lighting inside your home.
Backyards and Gardens could be a home for pest
Backyards and Garden is our outdoor sanctuary at home, whether for entertainment, gardening or simply relaxing and meditation. But if not maintained and taken for granted these could be a home for those annoying pests that most of the time brings fatal sickness. Mosquitoes, in particular, but also many other types of pests, love water. As a result, if you want to keep them at bay, it’s important to find ways to eliminate still water lying around in your outdoor areas.
Conclusion
Indoor air pollution, electromagnetic radiation, backyard pests and poor lighting are just simple problems that can be solved with some simple changes in your home. These changes like fixing your light or having a good ventilation system are simple investments that give a bigger return for good health for you and your family.