5 Solutions to Indoor Air Pollution

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Dr. G

This series of posts is dedicated to understanding how we interface with our environment. Last week we focused on the GI tract or “gut” interface and saw how it can impact different systems in the body and cause different health problems such as leaky gut and cardiovascular disease.

Last week, we said that there are 3 areas where we interface with our environment in a way that will impact virtually every system in our body. If we are able to adapt, then these areas will be healthy. If the environment exceeds our ability to adapt, then they will be unhealthy.

Where and How We Interface With the Environment:

1. Gut and lungs: The air we breathe and the food we eat.
2. Muscles, joints and inner ear: The terrain we physically put ourselves in correlates with so many of our bodily processes. This interface will determine different responses if you are in the desert, mountains, or sitting on an office chair in a building in NYC.
3. Skin and eyes: Artificial light and sunlight. Terrestrial (geologic) and synthetic electromagnetic fields.
4. Psychological and social: How we think, feel, interact and socialize with others.

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This post will discuss the lungs as an area of environmental interface. This includes the quality of the air we breathe, the efficiency with which we are able to exchange gases, and the mechanics of breathing.

“Breath is the finest gift of nature. Be grateful for this wonderful gift.” ― Amit Ray

The EPA states that your indoor environment is 3-5 times more toxic than your outdoor environment. That means people who live in busy polluted cities are experiencing levels of air pollution that is unprecedented in human history. If you’ve chosen to live in a rural, “clean” part of the world to get away from the pollution of the big cities and you choose to breathe the fresh mountain or ocean air, you should consider your indoor environment, because if the building materials, cleaning materials, HVAC systems, appliances and household products are the same, you get little benefit from the “healthier” outdoor environment. Up to 92% of our time is spent indoors at home or the workplace.

The fact that 80% of all cancers are environmentally driven as opposed to genetically driven is not up for debate.The reason we spend so much time, money and resources on genetics is because, as a culture, we have determined or it has been decided for us that we are not going to make changes to our polluted environment. We are treating all chronic diseases, such as cancer, from the standpoint that people will not change their toxic air, toxic food, toxic relationships, or toxic behaviors. Therefore we will try to manipulate people’s genes when they get sick, because we have more knowledge than 600 million years of evolution (please excuse my sarcasm).

We’ve known for years that the air in your own home or workplace is contributing to chronic health issues. The question you have to ask is: What are you doing about it? Indoor pollution accounts for multiple pathways to autoimmunity, affecting your gut, lungs, skin and brain.

There are simple steps you can take to immediately improve your indoor air quality that can result in dramatic changes in how you feel. It is important to note that children take in 50% more air per pound of body weight than adults.

Here are the top 5 quick easy steps to take.

1. Chlorine in the air: Place a chlorine filter on your home’s water maine. Usually when we think about chlorine in our water, we are concerned about drinking it, and we should be; it is not a good idea to ingest chlorine. So how does is affect our air?

Many municipal water companies dramatically increase their chlorine content after a rain storm or for any situation where bacteria levels in the reservoirs rise. This results in above-acceptable levels of chlorine in our water–a common occurrence here in NJ. You know when you walk into your bathroom and it reminds you of a swimming pool, there is way too much chlorine in the water.  When water sits in our toilets and the seats are left up and when we are showering, water evaporates and releases chlorine gas into the air, ready for you to breathe in.  Most homeowners will not leave the ventilation motor on all day and night.  The chlorine gas is of greater concern in the winter time since we are more likely to have all of the windows closed and the air conditioning units are turned off.  Most filter systems only address drinking water and not the water that goes to the bath and toilets.  

There are many whole-house carbon filtration systems to remove chlorine among other things from your water. If attaching a filter to the main is a problem or not possible, there are options for attaching a filter to your shower.  It is a good idea to open the windows for a portion of the day in the winter time to allow for air to circulate.  

2. Vacuum cleaners matter.  Dry filter vacuums are one of the biggest polluters of your home. Avoid dry vacuum cleaners, which are most vacuum cleaners. It doesn’t matter how expensive they are or how many HEPA filters they have. Here is the problem with dry vacuum cleaners.

A shop vac is powerful because the filter has large holes, so they have a lot of sucking power to pick up dirt. The problem is, those big holes blow all of the small polluting particles, dust and chemicals back into the air for you to breathe. That’s why they are “shop” vacs, because most people don’t care too much for the air quality in the shop. With that being said, you might say, “Okay, i’m going to buy a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filters which will filter out all of those polluting particles.”  The problem is that the better filter, which has smaller holes to trap really small particles, will not pick up the bigger dirt particles due to less sucking power. Okay, maybe you got a super powerful vac with a HEPA filter that will pick up the dirt too. Well, that’s a problem because the small holes in the filter are being blocked by the big particles and dirt, resulting in a waste of an expensive filter which does not get the chance to do what it does best: trap really small particles. Air that is recirculated by the vacuum will place toxic particles, contaminants, dirt, and flame retardants into your living space for 8 hours, remaining airborne.  

So what’s the solution? Water is used to clean everything we want to keep clean, so why not clean your air with water? The solution is to use a vacuum that passes all of its air through water: the best solvent we have. Water traps 99.997% of the particles in the air, then the air that passes the water is screened through a HEPA filter where the tiny little holes can be of use, picking up the tiniest little particles that made it past the almost impregnable water. This process results in air that is recirculated and perfectly clean.  Since the water traps all of the particles, the vacuum never loses power and therefore cleans 5 times more particulate matter than the best conventional dry air vacuums. If you’ve ever smelled and felt how fresh the air is after a hurricane, you realize that is exactly how it happens; water is the solvent to trap anything and everything in the air. 

A vacuum cleaner like this can double as an air purifier. Essential oils can be placed in the back of the unit featured here for pleasant a scent and the healing effects of the essential oils. Essential oils avoid the toxicity of commercial scents.   

3. Flooring: Rugs, Carpets.

Rugs and carpets trap all of the stuff we walk through every day. Stuff we pick up in parking lots, soccer fields, sidewalks, etc. You can imagine what we drag in. All of that gets deposited into the rugs and carpets and becomes dry and waits to be picked up by the dry air vacuum cleaners and be circulated into the air. Rugs and carpets also have flame retardant chemicals sprayed on them which will degrade over time and will definitely be circulated in the air.

Are your rugs and carpets “Giving off gas?” That would be the “new carpet smell.” It is the evaporation of chemicals from the rug and carpet surfaces and is known as “off gassing.” Off gassing can occur from any surface that has chemicals on it, such as plastic or vinyl. These chemicals are considered VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds).

Rugs should be made with natural fibers, like wool and cotton, without the use of flame retardant chemicals.

4. Inspect home for mold: I recommend hiring a professional consultant as opposed to taking on home inspection as a DIY project. However, if you insist on doing it yourself, the most knowledgeable person I know on the subject is a doctor and colleague who practices functional medicine and wrote a book on the subject, Dr. David Peterson. He offers education and solutions. Mold does not only occur when there is water exposure, as in floods, leaks, seepage, and humidity. Mold collects in HVAC ductwork and mold spores are spread throughout the home. There are simple solutions, such as placing an antimicrobial UV light inside the ductwork to kill the yeast and mold spores, preventing their entrance into your lungs and GI tract where they cause a lot of damage.

5. Linens, pillowcases and mattress covers (and pajamas) should be 100% organic cotton: Yes, I said organic cotton. I know what you are thinking: “Not another thing I have to shop organic for!” When it comes to toxicity, the issue is the dose, so you have to look at your chronic health profile and decide how far you’d like to go. Cotton is a crop that is not ingested, therefore it is heavily sprayed with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that are not regulated the way they are regulated for consumable crops. And since we know they are used too liberally for the crops we do consume, imagine how much is used for the crops we wear. If you wear something on your skin, whatever is on that material will wind up in your bloodstream and in the air. You should be sure to wash your linens and sheets with hot water above 130 degrees once per week so mites are kept away. Organic cotton slipcovers for sofas are a great way to prevent fire retardant chemicals from breaking down and seeping into the air. Remember to wash them often as well.  

Why is the air a bigger problem now than ever before?

The first home my wife and I bought was an attached tudor-style townhouse in Queens, NY and was built in 1929. The house was a bit drafty, to put it mildly. There were a host of places a candle would blow out if you held it there for a moment on a breezy day, and not just around the windows. Behind the plaster and lathe walls (no sheet rock) was the external brick, without insulation. Terribly energy inefficient, but certainly a steady source of fresh air (well, as fresh as the air can be in Queens). Today, with green building techniques, energy efficiency is very important to homeowners, builders, politicians and inspectors, and for good reason. We do not want to waste energy so the greater environment is better for all of us. But the unintended consequence is energy efficient homes that trap stale air indoors during winter months, allowing pollutants to get trapped and not be exchanged with the external fresher air.

It has also been decided that flame retardant chemicals are an acceptable level of toxicity to introduce into the household. We use flame retardant chemicals on our mattresses, pajamas, furniture, carpets and rugs. This decision was made during a time that was less toxic. Add to that the toxicity of all of the 80,000 chemicals that have been introduced into our environment since WW2, of which only a fraction have been tested for toxicity.

This post has focused on the air we breathe, last week we discussed the food we ingest. This series of posts is addressing all the ways in which we interface and communicate with our environment. This post could not possibly cover all of the issues, but it’s certainly a start that could keep you busy for a while. If you have any particular concerns related to your indoor environment please submit them in the comments below.