Indoor Air Quality
Here in Canada we spend a large portion of our time indoors during the colder months. This means that we're breathing stale air that's been hanging around inside instead of good fresh air from outside. If that's true, then how good is is the air inside?
As you might have guessed, it really depends on pollutant sources inside the home (or business). Some of those sources include products that are combusted:
oil, gas, kerosene, coal, wood, and tobacco products.
Or are building materials and furnishings:
asbestos containing insulation, wet or damp carpet, and cabinetry or furniture made of certain pressed wood products
Finally, there's products for household cleaning and maintenance, personal care, or hobbies; central heating and cooling systems and humidification devices; and outdoor sources such as radon, pesticides, and outdoor air pollution.
Immediate Effects
Immediate effects may show up after just a single exposure or it might take repeated exposures for symptoms to occur.
Symptoms might include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. These effects are usually short-term and treatable (even as simple as eliminating the person's exposure to the source of the pollution).
Symptoms of some diseases, including asthma, or hypersensitivity pneumonitis, may also show up soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants.
What to Do About Indoor Air Quality
Now that we know where some of the indoor pollution comes from and some of it's effects, what do we do about it?
The best way to deal with this pollution is have a good exchange of air between the outdoors and indoors. However, this isn't always easy in our cold environment. And that's where Sick Building Solutions comes in. We can recommend solutions that are tailored to the unique needs of your home or business. During the inspection process we will test for a wide variety of indoor pollutants as well as basics such as humidity, carbon dioxide and temperature.
Once the testing is done, we will deliver a report to you that explains what we've found and what to do about potential (and existing) problems.