Indoor Air Quality Testing Articles and Resources | Healthy Homes by AmeriSpec of Canada

What to consider when purchasing a CO detector

At any level, the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) in a home is dangerous. Because you can’t see, taste or smell it, it can affect you or your family before you even know it’s there. Even at low levels of exposure, carbon monoxide can cause serious health problems, or even death.

So, how can you protect your family from carbon monoxide? The first step is to make sure that carbon monoxide is not present in the air in your home. The second step is to install one or more CO detectors in your home.

What to do if you have high radon levels in your home?

Because the levels of radon present in a home depend on so many variables (and they can vary dramatically, even between similar homes located next to each other), the only way to determine if you and your family are at risk is to have your home professionally tested.

If you have had your home tested for radon gas and the results show the level is above 200 becquerels per cubic meter, then you should take action to reduce the amount of radon gas in your home. It is important to note that there are significant health risks in having any amount of radon gas in your home, therefore you may want to reduce your exposure, even if your test results show levels under this amount.

Excess moisture in bathrooms: the #1 cause of mold

Bathrooms, of course, generate a good deal of moisture through showers and bathing. In fact, of all the rooms in your home, bathrooms are the most likely location for excess moisture to occur, and therefore become an “amplification site,” for black mold to grow and become a health hazard.

When particular areas in a home have suitable nutrient and moisture content that fosters mold overgrowth, this is called an amplification site.

The connection between air sealing and ventilation in your home

Over the past several decades there has been a trend in the residential building industry to make houses more energy efficient during construction. In the early nineties, the national building code was changed to include the requirement for a continuous air barrier (essentially a large sheet of plastic) to be installed around a building’s thermal envelope. A thermal envelope is the surface between the heated and unheated ceiling of a home.

Creating continuous air barriers makes buildings more airtight, but as a result, lack of natural ventilation often occurs, causing poor air quality (polluted, stale, moisture laden air). The solution has been to install mechanical ventilation equipment in houses in conjunction with the continuous air barrier, to simultaneously keep indoor pollutant levels down and maintain high energy efficiency.

The difference between toxic mold and allergenic mold

Everyone wants the peace of mind of knowing their home is a healthy place to live. We pay a lot of attention to eating healthy foods and avoiding unhealthy habits, but what about the air we breathe inside our homes? We hear about mold being toxic and a health hazard in the home. Should you be concerned?

Some molds are more hazardous than others, and everyone has a different response to exposure—some people are more allergic, or they have existing respiratory conditions or suppressed immune systems that make the presence of mold in the home more of a health concern.