Smoking indoors is one of the most damaging things a person can do with regards to their indoor air quality. Smoking indoors lowers the quality of air more than almost all other air pollutants like smog, mold and allergens. In fact, the only other airborne pollutant that affects indoor air quality more than smoking cigarettes is smoke damage from a household fire.
Dirty air ducts are a negative contributor to the quality of air in your home, more so if you have smokers in the house.
Why Is Air Quality Important?
Indoor air quality affects your overall health more than you realize. Having a low quality of the air you breathe can affect your sleep, make you more prone to respiratory illnesses, carbon monoxide poisoning, chronic breathing problems, and allergies.
Good air quality is key to a person’s wellness, both physical and emotional, as extended exposure to poor air quality has been shown to affect mental health negatively. Children who grow up with poor indoor air quality are more likely to develop chronic breathing problems like asthma, as well as having increased chances of failure-to-thrive, obesity, cancer and mental health problems.
One thing you can do to minimize indoor air pollutants from smoking is having your air ducts professionally cleaned regularly making breathing clean in your home possible. Until you prohibit smoking indoors, this is a temporary fix however.
How Does Smoking Affect Air Quality?
Smoking puts toxic and harmful byproducts into the air for everyone around you to breathe in. This is called second-hand-smoke and it can be just as harmful as smoking yourself. Smoking indoors lowers the air quality of your home by adding chemicals such as arsenic, carbon monoxide, lead, ammonia, benzene, menthol and formaldehyde.
These harsh and harmful toxins lead to lung damage, cancers and chronic conditions such COPD and asthma. The substances in cigarette smoke are especially harmful to children, the elderly and those with pre-existing chronic health conditions.
Smoking in your home also causes thirdhand smoke pollution where the harmful particles stick to porous surfaces like upholstery and are released back into the air at a later time.
It’s estimated that secondhand and thirdhand smoke can cause up to 3,000 passive smokers’ deaths a year. A passive smoker is a person who never smokes a cigarette themselves; they simply live in an environment where the air quality is polluted by smoke.
What Can You Do to Help Improve Air Quality?
Cleaning up a home exposed to cigarette smoke is a process that can seem overwhelming but it’s incredibly important to the health of everyone in your household.
The first step to improving the air quality indoors after being exposed to cigarette smoke is to stop smoking indoors. No matter how many air filters, air purifiers or cleaning, if you continue to smoke indoors the air quality will remain poor.
After you and all members of your household stop smoking indoors, you will need to clean all surfaces of your home including walls and ceilings, in order to alleviate thirdhand smoke. Likewise, all upholstery, carpeting, and other porous surfaces will need to be replaced or professionally cleaned.
Another necessary step is replacing the air filter on your HVAC unit and having your vents and ducts cleaned thoroughly. After extensive cleaning, it’s still important to use air purifiers to continue to filter out any leftover toxins and chemicals in the air.
716 Duct Clean in Livonia uses the most advanced air duct cleaning system available. As duct cleaning experts, our equipment is able to reach and dislodge all contaminants in any angle or elbow thoroughly and efficiently. Homes throughout Michigan have benefited from our family-owned services for more than 25 years.
It is always a good idea to be proactive about what you are breathing, and clean air ducts provides an easy fix to a long term problem. Call for a Free Estimate today!