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Why should we monitor air quality at home?
Before we begin to improve our air quality at home or in the workplace, we need to understand air quality. The best way to do this is through monitoring it.
By monitoring indoor air quality, we can learn when our air is healthy (clean), when it is unhealthy (dirty), and what causes these changes. Then we can identify what we need to do to improve our homes’ air quality.
Indoor air quality can be complicated to monitor and improve. Not only are chemical pollutants such as PM2.5, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide present indoors, but also biological pollutants such as dust, mould, and pet dander (dead skin). These pollutants and others such as cigarette smoke can cause both short- and long-term health problems.
Check for PM2.5 Using An Indoor Air Quality Monitor
PM2.5 is one of the most common pollutants inside our homes. This is a good place to start in terms of indoor air quality measurement. Access to air quality data, including PM2.5 levels, gives us the opportunity to understand the causes of indoor air pollution.
If you experience symptoms like difficulty breathing or itchy eyes, pay attention to the time and location where these symptoms occur. This can help us identify sources of indoor air pollution. For example, do the symptoms go away when you move rooms or open/close a window? Do the symptoms appear or get worse at certain times of day or night?
Knowing Both Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality Is Important
A home indoor air quality monitor such as the aria AirTest is designed to help us measure and understand the air where we spend most of our time. Data from the aria AirTest indoor air quality monitor can be accessed through the nafas application, where we can keep track of how safe our air indoors is compared to outdoors.
We can also find out the outdoor Air Quality Index (AQI) for our neighbourhood, which is why nafas has installed over 90 outdoor air monitors in Jabodetabek and Yogyakarta. Keep in mind that outdoor air quality can be different from indoor air quality, which is why knowing both is important.
Knowing what the air is like inside our homes can help us make decisions both short-term (such as temporarily relocating or using air purifiers) and long-term (such as making home improvements or even moving house).
To learn how to keep your home air quality healthy, click here.
