Mold, Dust, and Allergens: The Invisible Threats Inside Your Home
This is a contributed post.
Chances are you focus a lot on what you can see wrong with your home.
That stain on the carpet. The crack in the wall. The leaky faucet. But the biggest threats to your family's health are things you literally cannot see. Unless you have them professionally tested, that is.
The air inside your home contains a mix of mold spores, dust particles, allergens, and other pollutants every single day. The EPA estimates Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. Wherever we spend most of our time, our air should be clean too.
Yet the air inside most homes is worse than the air outside.
Here's What You'll Learn:
What's Actually in Your Home's Air?
Mold: It's Not Just on the Walls
Dust and Dust Mites: Tiny Invaders
Allergens: Causes of Constant Symptoms
Air Ducts: Where Pollutants Live to Infinity…and Beyond
Cleaning Up Your Home's Air Quality for Good
What's Actually in Your Home's Air?
Here's the problem with the air inside your home…
It's complicated.
Without proper home air quality testing, you'll never know what's really floating around in your air supply. There's no odour. No stains or spots. You just breathe it in day after day, year after year.
The three most common pollutants in every home are mold spores, household dust, and allergens. They differ slightly in how they grow, where they accumulate, and how they affect your health. But if you want to improve your indoor air quality, you need to know about all of them.
For those already experiencing unexplained symptoms at home, Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma is one of the most direct ways to improve indoor air quality. All three of these pollutants hide out in your ductwork and create serious health effects.
Let's take a closer look at each one.
Mold: It's Not Just on the Walls
If you've got mold in your home, you'll know.
It looks and smells disgusting. But here's the thing. Mold often hides out where you can't see it. Behind walls, underneath floors, inside HVAC systems, and anyplace where water has pooled for more than a couple of days.
Research consistently shows a 30% to 70% increase in adverse health effects in homes with dampness and mold — including asthma, cough, wheeze, and upper respiratory symptoms.
You might not see it. But mold in your home can cause:
Sneezing and coughing
Irritated throat
Aggravated asthma symptoms
Skin irritation
Eye irritation
And that's just the beginning.
Dust and Dust Mites: Tiny Invaders
Don't judge dust by its appearance.
Tiny, filmy dust might not look like much but did you know it's made up of dead skin cells, fabric fibres, pet hair, soil debris, and dust mite droppings? Dustmites are a microscopic pest that feeds on dead skin flakes and loves to burrow where we sleep.
Pay attention to this part.
Dustmites aren't the problem. Their poo is.
When disturbed, dust particles become airborne incredibly quickly. Think about how much walking around on carpet spreads dust into the air. Dustmites themselves aren't harmful, but their droppings are linked to increased allergy and asthma symptoms.
Children sleeping with dustmite-infested pillows or mattresses have…
wait for it…
…a higher risk of developing asthma by the time they reach school age.
Dust mites are found in:
Mattresses
Pillows
Carpets
Upholstered furniture
If you have carpets or pets, you also have dustmites.
Allergens: Causes of Constant Symptoms
Do you feel worse at home than you do outside?
It's not your imagination. Indoors, allergens from pollen, pets, and more get trapped inside our homes. Once indoors, pollen mixes with carpet fibres, flies around the HVAC system, and becomes a serious irritant for everyone.
Allergens don't just appear out of nowhere either.
They build up over time. Nightly vacuuming, dusting, and laundry won't fully remove their presence. That's why regular home air quality testing and prevention is so important.
Common indoor allergens include:
Dustmite droppings
Pet skin flakes (dogs, cats, birds, rodents)
Mold spores
Pollen from outdoors
Cockroach debris
Symptoms come and go outdoors because allergens aren't as concentrated. But if you feel sick when you're home, and better when you leave for the day, it might be time for professional testing.
Air Ducts: Where Pollutants Hide Out
Did you know?
The air moving through your home travels through air ducts first. If the air in those ducts is dirty, guess what gets pushed into every room?
You got it. Pollutants.
Air ducts can house:
Dust
Pet dander
Pollen
Moisture (which leads to mold growth)
Not only do air ducts trap pollutants from all around your home, but they circulate those pollutants too. Leaving your air ducts dirty will only spread pollen, dust, and everything else through your home.
And that brings us to your next question.
How To Actually Fix Your Home's Air Quality
Want to know the best part?
It can all be fixed.
Here are a few steps you can take to improve the air you breathe every day:
Have your air ducts professionally cleaned. Dust, pollen, and allergens accumulate in your air ducts and get pushed into every room of your home.
Control indoor moisture. Use a humidifier when needed during winter months, and keep humidity below 50% year-round to prevent mold growth.
Clean or replace HVAC filters every few months. Dirty filters restrict airflow and don't trap pollen or irritants as well.
Invest in a vacuum with a HEPA filter. Regular vacuuming traps more dust and prevents circulating it through your home.
Clean visible mold immediately. Moisture leads to mold, so clean up leaks and spills as they happen. Mold in shower grouts and corners should be scrubbed weekly.
Start with air duct cleaning. It's the most impactful way to improve your home's air quality.
Your Home's Air Quality: Quick Summary
Mold. Dust. Allergens.
Does it feel like every aspect of the home is trying to make you sick?
It doesn't have to be this way.
The air inside our homes should be better than the air outside. In most homes, it's not — and that can have serious impacts on our family's health. Dustmites in pillows, pet dander on carpets, and overlooked mold patches are only harmful when ignored.
Get your home's air quality checked. Change the filters. Vacuum with a HEPA filter vacuum.
You can breathe better today.
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