Tag Archives: air quality

What Can You Do on Bad Air Quality Days?

I was driving around Portland last week when one of those traffic message boards nearly stopped me in my tracks: HIGH SMOG TODAY. It went on to suggest that I limit my driving (hard to do when one is already in the car and on the road). I didn’t think the Pacific Northwest was a major smog area, but I guess the traffic message flashers don’t lie. Air quality depends on a lot of things, including what’s in the air (it may be particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, even pollen and mold). Urban areas tend to have more problems with … Continue reading →

Clear Pollutants Out of Your Home

These tips from the American Lung Association can help keep the air in your home cleaner — which can reduce problems with allergies and asthma and prevent other health problems. Never paint in an unventilated room! The fumes can leave you with permanent damage to your sense of smell and your brain. Don’t forget to clean your dryer’s exhaust pipe. Cleaning the lint trap only removes half the lint from your system! Use a round brush with a long, flexible neck to pull lint from the exhaust pipe. Always vent your dryer to an open outside area. If you vent … Continue reading →

Home Week in Review: August 27 – September 2

I hope you had a great week and I hope you are now enjoying your Labor Day weekend. Labor Day was designed to celebrate the individual, the worker, the laborer, the people who work hard to make the American dream a reality. So, enjoy yourself. You deserve long weekend. This week, in the Home Blog, we were inside and outside the home. We talked about phones, plants, safety, cleaning, air purification, and outdoor improvements, with articles on things like the pros and cons of trading a “landline” for a mobile phone and ways to add curb appeal. There was a … Continue reading →

More on Houseplants that Help Improve Air Quality

Continuing where we left off yesterday, in Another Way to Go Green: Houseplants for Air Purification, I’d like to share more on houseplants that can help clean the air in our homes. As we learn more about the potential dangers of substances like formaldehyde, benzene, and other problematic gas such as carbon monoxide, we’re also learning that bringing in houseplants is a simple way to help purify the air and protect against these hazards. Some of these plants are quite common, so they’re readily available to us. Many are easy to care for as well. Here are some of the … Continue reading →

Another Way to Go Green: Houseplants for Air Purification

We know that plants are good for many things, from providing food in the form of fruits, vegetables, and grains, to offering medicinal qualities, such as those found in the Aloe Vera plant. Plants also make great accessories, giving spaces throughout the home more life. However, plants deserve a lot more credit. They have some tremendous properties that can help make your home and your family healthier. We are aware that plants can absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen, but I for one hadn’t given this important issue as much thought as I should have. Then, I learned … Continue reading →

Battling Your Home’s Invisible Dangers–Protecting Your Kids

In my previous blog I revealed that I spent the past few days battling a respiratory illness and wondered what had caused me to feel so miserable. I joked (partially) that the numerous invisible hazardous pollutants that are present in nearly every household could have triggered my sickness. That blog provided tips on how to control the problem, but neglected to stress how important it is to rid your home of these dangerous pollutants, especially if you have young children. Recent studies illustrate the negative effects toxic household pollutants have on adults, but the real eye-opener is what they do … Continue reading →

Reducing Air Pollution

Various kinds of air pollution can aggravate your allergies. Much of the pollution in the air comes from industrial sources and cars, but there are lots of things you can do on your own to help decrease air pollution. Small changes can make a big difference over time! Get your family involved! Here are some ideas for reducing air pollution at home: Use energy-efficient lights and appliances. Look for the Energy Star label to find the most efficient products. Recycle paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and cardboard. Reuse materials — like plastic and paper bags or plastic containers — whenever possible. … Continue reading →

Air Quality: Ozone

Ozone is one of the five major pollutants measured on a daily basis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in order to determine the Air Quality Index. There are two kinds of ozone: good ozone and bad or ground ozone. The good kind occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere and helps shield us from ultraviolet rays from the sun. The bad kind is formed in the lower atmosphere, near ground level. Ground-level ozone is formed when pollutants from cars, power plants, boilers, refineries, and other sources react chemically to sunlight. Ground-level ozone is mainly a concern during the summer months … Continue reading →

Air Quality

If you’re a regular Weather Channel watcher, you’ve probably seen reports about the air quality. Lots of different things contribute to air pollution — industrial pollution, driving, dry cleaning, and even using paint. These (and other) activities release gases and particles into the air and contribute to air pollution. DID YOU KNOW: The average adult breathes more than three thousand gallons of air every day! Children breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults do. Children and the elderly tend to be more sensitive to air pollution. Just like the weather, the air quality can change from day … Continue reading →

Urban Runner’s Tips

Live in the city? Need to boost your running routine? Here are some urban running tips to help get you in better shape and stay safe during your workout. Runners enjoy and challenge themselves on a regular basis to meet their own personal goals. Runners need to maintain a healthy observance of their environment and their pace in order to protect themselves from injury both from their running and from the environment. This is never truer than when running in an urban area. Look for Nature in the Concrete Jungle It’s better to run on dirt or grass trails in … Continue reading →