Environment
Indoor Air Pollution & Your Children: What You Need to Know
By
Sep 7, 2005, 23:15

(NAPSI)-With every breath your children take, they are exposed to millions of airborne pollutants doing more harm than you realize.

How can the air inside a home be so bad for children?

• About 80 percent of what you see floating in a ray of sunshine entering a home is dead human skin flakes.

• About 40 pounds of dust in your home is generated per 1,500 square feet every year. Each speck of dust carries about 40,000 dust mites and other illness-causing bacteria and viruses.

• Pollens, ragweed and a variety of other allergens find their way into your home from outside.

• Airborne animal dander is a common trigger for allergies and asthma, plus pet feces emit added contaminants into the air.

• If there is a smoker at home, second hand smoke can increase the risk of getting ear infections, upper respiratory infections and growth retardation.

Children are more affected by poor indoor air quality because they are still growing and developing. Exposure to toxic substances and pollutants can affect all aspects of their development, including how fast they grow and their ability to fight off infections.

Children are naturally curious, always touching, tasting and investigating their surroundings. According to Scientific American, a baby crawling on the floor inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day, as a result of the out gassing of carpets, molds, mildews, fungi and dust mites.

Many airborne pollutants are hard to detect and cause subtle symptoms. Some symptoms may not show up for years. Common symptoms include headaches, tiredness, dizziness, nausea, itchy nose and scratchy throat. More serious effects from poor indoor air quality are asthma and other breathing disorders and cancer.

One popular solution to the problem of indoor air pollution is high-quality indoor air purifiers. Blueair air purifiers, for example, use HEPASilent™ Filtration Technology capturing 99.97 percent of the tiniest airborne pollutants at 0.1 micron and can be purchased for room capacities from 200 sq. ft. to 680 sq. ft. Blueair also completely cleans the air in the room up to five times an hour and does not emit ozone into the room.

Before buying an air purifier, you may want to learn more about them by visiting sites such as www.cadr.org and www.energy star.gov. For more information on indoor air purifiers, visit www. blueair.com or call 1-888-258-3247.

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