October is National Healthy Lung Month and now that the weather is getting cooler and seniors will be spending more time indoors it’s a good time to learn about some of the common pollutants that are found inside homes, especially during the winter months.
Indoor air quality often isn’t great when houses are shut up tight to ward off the cold. Seniors should have at least one air cleaner in their home, and ideally should have one in each of the rooms where they spend a lot of time. Seniors who are aging in place and have respiratory issues need to be concerned about these common allergens:
Dust
Every home has a certain amount of dust. But when that dust builds up it can cause wheezing, coughing, and irritation of the lungs for seniors that have respiratory conditions or a general sensitivity to dust. One way to make sure that dust isn’t an issue for your senior loved one is to have home care for your senior parent. One of the many ways that home care helps seniors is by dusting regularly to keep the air and the home as clean as possible.
Pet Dander
Pet danger is another common allergen found inside. And during the cold weather months when the doors and windows are shut tight that pet dander gets all over the house even if pets aren’t allowed in certain areas like the bedroom. To keep pet dander to a minimum it’s a good idea to get pets professionally groomed. Regular baths and brushing can help minimize the amount of dander shed by the pet. And regularly washing pet beds and blankets in hot water will also help get rid of that irritating pet dander.
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide is hazardous and can even be deadly. It can build up in homes during the cold weather caused by the furnace, fireplaces, woodstoves, or heaters. You can’t smell carbon monoxide so it can be hard to detect. Keeping the house ventilated by running ceiling fans will help but all seniors should have carbon monoxide detectors in their homes to make sure that they aren’t being exposed to harmful levels of carbon monoxide. A combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector is a good thing for all seniors to have.
Scented Products
No one wants to live in a house that smells stale. That’s why there is such a dizzying array of products to make homes smell good. Scented candles, room sprays, room diffusers, air cleaning sprays, carpet powders, and wall plug ins all can change the way a room smells. However, all those chemicals are made from materials that can cause breathing problems.
Burning scented candles indoors without proper ventilation can lead to a build up of black smoky residue and overpowering perfume scents in the air. Room plug ins, diffusers, carpet powders, and room sprays mostly use synthetic chemicals to add fragrance. Many seniors are sensitive to those fragrances and chemicals. The best way to freshen the air in the house is to have plants. Plants naturally clean the air and create fresh oxygen.
