Indoor Air Pollution And How It Affects Your Long-Term Health
This is a guest post by an US health and safety advocate, Mr Eric Stevenson.
Maintaining one’s long-term health involves more than a proper diet and exercise. To avoid developing dangerous health conditions, individuals must also avoid the very substances and situations that lead to the development of diseases. Unfortunately, many of these risks remain hidden unless properly screened for by professionals. However, recent evidence describing the heavy toll of indoor air pollutants indicates that this increasingly common danger deserves serious attention.
Luckily, the risks posed by indoor air pollutants can sometimes be easily avoided by simply removing these toxins from homes and maintaining good indoor air quality. As with any chemical threat, simply avoiding contact represents the surest way to avoid exposure and disease. Coupled with proper ventilation, removing toxins from a home can stave off many of the respiratory, heart and developmental conditions that have risen in frequency recently.
Simple ways to avoid these negative health effects of indoor air pollution include
- removing shoes before entering a home,
- avoiding unnatural cleaners and
- refusing to use chemical deodorizers.
Nevertheless, some hidden home threats remain more difficult to remove. Among those difficult-to-remove threats are some of the most dangerous, including extremely hazardous chemicals like radon, lead and asbestos. Asbestos, especially, poses a great threat because of its past popularity in construction as an insulator and its frequent use. Virtually all homes built in the U.S. prior to the ban on asbestos in the 1970s contain some form of asbestos, whether present in ceiling textures, pipe shielding or wall insulation. Furthermore, asbestos leads to a lethal cancer known as mesothelioma.
Unfortunately, mesothelioma symptoms can remain latent for 20 to 50 years, meaning this disease can lie dormant for years until an individual’s immune system is weakened. Worse still, these early symptoms resemble other illnesses initially, meaning individuals often seek either the wrong treatment or none, leading to the poor prognosis mesothelioma typically carries. Statistically, individuals survive an average of 8 to 14 months after initial diagnosis.
For that reason, individuals in older homes who suspect they might have been exposed to dangerous chemicals need to consult a doctor for a full examination. One factor all diseases share is that treatment is most successful when carried out early. Mesothelioma symptoms exemplify the danger some of these diseases present. Furthermore, many chemicals, including asbestos, can prey on victims at any time and require only brief exposure to pose a threat. While maintaining your long-term health, ensuring the safety of environments you spend the most time in should be the first step for everyone. As we age, past exposure can threaten to unleash hidden diseases that have been stored in your bodies for decades, making preventative action the best course.
Mr Eric Stevenson is a health and safety advocate who resides in the South Eastern US. For questions about this article please feel free to contact him at epicsurvivor@gmail.com
