Indoor Air Pollution: How Safe is Your Home?

Backyard burning is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. On their own properties, people burn vegetative waste or household trash that would typically be recycled or sent to a landfill. Burning can happen in a barrel, homemade burn box, wood stove, outdoor boiler, or an open pit [1]^[1].

Some people think of backyard burning as a nostalgic autumn tradition and convenient, affordable way to get rid of leaves and waste. Others don't think about it at all … until the smoke from their neighbor's burn pile shows up in the air around and inside their home. 

Cigarettes are having a cultural moment again. For a while, they seemed destined to become a relic of another era. Then came vaping, sleek electronic devices, flavored nicotine, a way to smoke almost anywhere, and a whole new aesthetic. 

Now, the pendulum appears to be swinging again.

Recent cultural coverage has pointed renewed interest in something trendsetters are calling analog smoking, especially among younger consumers. Cigarettes are showing up in fashion, celebrity imagery, nightlife culture, and social media feeds, alongside terms like cigfluencers, Gen Z smoking, and even vape fatigue.

When you were a kid and had never seen "Lyme disease" spelled out before, you might have assumed it had something to do with little green citrus fruits. (No? Just me?) 

Turns out, the disease is named for Lyme, Connecticut, where the first cluster of cases was documented back in 1977. Unfortunately, Lyme disease has spread far beyond Lyme's town limits: Today, it's been reported in almost every U.S. state, but the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Upper Midwest regions see the most cases. It also exists in Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world [1, 2][1, 2]. 

Fall has a way of putting maintenance back on everyone's radar. You're changing routines, getting the house ready for cooler weather, and maybe finally tackling that list of things you meant to check months ago. Changing your air purifier filters deserves a spot on that to-do list.

Clean air isn't just about clearing out particles and volatile organic compounds. Humidity is an important component of indoor air quality (IAQ), and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists monitoring and adjusting humidity as a way to improve the air in your home [1]^[1]. 

Plus, research suggests that indoor humidity could play a bigger role in your health than you might think. Experimental studies show that too much or too little humidity can create conditions that make it easier for germs and allergens to stick around [2]^[2].

Sticky summer air isn't for everyone. Whether you love or hate climates that make you sweat on the way to your mailbox, the objective reality is that humidity creates a few extra challenges for people who care about air quality.

Before we get into those potential clean-air and respiratory health threats, let's take a minute to go over the basics of humidity.

Hurricane prep usually starts with the obvious: batteries, bottled water, flashlights, medications, and a plan for where to go if conditions turn dangerous. But hurricane season home preparation should also include the air inside your home.

I've lived in Florida my whole life, so hurricane prep feels almost like a seasonal ritual. Still, indoor air can be easy to overlook when there are shutters to hang and supplies to track down.

Counterintuitively, a big part of maintaining good indoor air quality (IAQ) is being more mindful of the air outside your home. That's because half of what's in the air outside can make its way inside [1]^[1].

From pollen and mold spores to pesticides and other lawn treatments, lots of different outdoor contaminants find their way into the air you breathe when you're chilling on the couch, eating lunch at the kitchen table, or even tucked under the covers in bed.