Indoor Air Pollution and Asthma

According to data released by The American Lung Association, “For the nearly 26 million Americans with asthma, including 7 million children, unhealthy air can create a difficult barrier to asthma management”.

For those living with asthma, an impending attack, or being in the presence of known triggers, can be a very worrisome and scary situation, and the research showing the correlation between indoor air pollution and asthma triggers and symptoms is getting stronger every day.

An asthma trigger is known as anything that can cause the symptoms of asthma to occur.  Triggers can be anything ranging from high temperatures, stress, pollen, cold air, laughing or crying too hard, smoke, mold, airborne chemicals, flu, and dust mites…just to name a few.

But of all the known asthma triggers, the most common are the impurities contained within the air.

Asthma triggers can very from person to person, and can even change as we age and grow.  When exposure levels are not managed or controlled appropriately, attacks can occur and result in reduced lung functioning. But how do you protect yourself from something you can’t see?

Air contaminates like smoke, perfumes, VOC’s, cleaning products, dust mites, mold, pollen and animal dander are not always visible to the naked eye, and many times we find ourselves in an environment filled with these potential hazards, and are not even aware of their presence. It may not be possible to completely avoid every single potential irritant or trigger within our lives, but managing our indoor air quality is absolutely something we can control.  As homeowners, we are getting smarter and smarter about what types of products we choose to bring into our homes as more evidence is showing how the presence of indoor air pollutants and asthma are related.  Many are looking towards materials and chemicals that produce minimal offgassing and don’t have the ability to leech toxins into indoor air.

Fantastic information is available to us that will help us allergy proof our homes and reduce allergy symptoms.  This, in turn, can help minimize some of the triggers that may cause an impending Asthma attack.  It is also always important to look for ways we can improve our indoor air quality and minimize exposure and contact with airborne polllutants. A wide variety of plants that can improve your indoor air quality are also available and are an affordable choice to help filter and remove toxins and chemicals from our indoor air.

When looking to determine your specific asthma triggers, particularly if these are within your home, it is always important to work with your family physician for proper instruction and guidance.  Keeping a diary or daily journal to keep tract of circumstances and situations in which asthma symptoms occur can also be very benificial in helping to identify triggers that are unique to you. If you use your journal to help find the common factors that may be present during each of your attacks, that will go a long way in helping to identify your common asthma triggers.

Regardless of the specific trigger or cause, our ultimate goal is to look toward ways to minimize our exposure to the contaminants that are known to cause symptoms and optimize the air quality inside of our homes for our health.  A DIY Indoor Air Quality Checklist can help you look for the rooms and conditions within your home that may pose a problem for your Asthma, and identify areas that need attention to aid in your overall Asthma management.  When it comes to this disease, knowing what is in your air is the greatest give you can give yourself to help manage your symptoms and prevent attacks.  If unsure what contaminants may be lurking or hidden, professional air qualtiy testing has an excellent return on your investment as it can help uncover threats and contaminants you never even knew were present, and offers easy solutions to help remove these threats from your space. After all, when it comes to indoor air pollution and asthma, you can never be too careful or too diligent with your indoor air.