Clean Air Month: Why Clean Air Is Important
Clean Air Month is for celebrating achievements in clean air, increasing awareness and learning new ways to improve your home’s air quality.
The month of May is monumental to the spring season in Connecticut. May marks the period between spring and summer when the flowers are blooming and the weather begins to warm up. May is also representative of a multitude of awareness and celebration days, including Clean Air Month. At Total Mechanical Systems, we want to increase awareness of clean air and inform our customers of ways they can improve their indoor air quality.
What Is Clean Air Month?
The purpose of Clean Air Month is to educate the public and create awareness about air pollution, the impact and importance of clean air, the relationship between air quality and respiratory health and how to improve air quality. The American Lung Association (ALA) first organized a clean air observance week in 1972. It then evolved into a full month of education in 1994.
ALA was one of the first organizations to discuss the connection between air pollution and lung health. As an organization, their goal is to help prevent lung diseases, improve lung health for all and ultimately save lives. However, Clean Air Month also serves as a time to acknowledge that poor air quality is still a very relevant issue today and that greater public awareness and understanding can not only lead to action and intervention but a healthier society.
Clean Air
More than likely, you know what a full breath of clean, fresh air feels like. Or perhaps, what it smells like. Our personal clean air associations may differ person-to-person, but the bottom line is that clean air is truly noticeable.
What actually comprises clean air? Clean air contains a natural balance of gases, primarily made up of nitrogen and oxygen and is without harmful levels of pollutants or contaminants. Clean air is safe to breathe and actually benefits our health and the environment. Researchers have even identified that the cleanest air on earth is located in a region of the Southern Ocean, near Antarctica. The air is free of particles and pollutants caused by human activity and industry. By contrast, polluted air is tainted by the release of contaminants. Air pollution threatens both human health and the surrounding environment.
What Differences Does Clean Air Make?
Air pollution is deemed a critical threat because of the numerous human health risks and significant environmental consequences pollution presents. Let’s break down the benefits of clean air and some of the surprising ways the air we breathe matters.
Human Health
The list of health issues, conditions, diseases and cancers that air pollution causes or contributes to seems never-ending. It ranges from more minimal symptoms like a sore throat or a cough to serious symptoms like shortness of breath and high blood pressure. Poor air quality has also been linked to difficulty concentrating and poor sleep quality. Serious air pollution exposure, whether indoors or out, can lead to cancer and even premature death. It’s no wonder experts are endlessly advocating for better air quality.
Let’s look at the health benefits possible with clean air:
- Healthy lungs
- Mood booster and improved mental health
- Reduced chances of developing serious life-threatening diseases, cancers and conditions
- Fewer respiratory symptoms for allergy and asthma sufferers or those with preexisting conditions
- Improved concentration and mental focus
- Stronger immune system
- Increased energy
- Lower blood pressure and heart rate
Environmental Health
Environmental health is a part of public health focused on addressing and mitigating the environmental factors that impact human health. This does not solely mean nature and weather. It applies to the entirety of our surrounding environments. That means things like plants and infrastructure in our local climate as well as the building materials used in our home. There is a wide range of environmental factors, and clean air is a vital component of good environmental health. This is also where indoor air quality becomes a focus. Improved indoor environmental health and mitigating indoor pollution sources require active choices and intervention.
Climate Health
Some sources of poor air quality also contribute to climate change. For example, burning fossil fuels is a source of air pollution that impacts both your health and wellness in addition to the Earth. Climate change is a clean air matter because it is a cyclical issue. Sources of air pollution contribute to climate change and climate change, in turn, worsens air quality.
Ensuring Clean Air
So, clean air is crucial for many reasons. But what can you do to ensure cleaner breathing air?
Advocate for Healthier Air Everywhere
Clean Air Month offers the perfect opportunity to advocate for healthier, cleaner air—indoors and out. This can take many forms. Maybe it means stressing the need for HVAC maintenance or upgrades to your employer before returning to work or supporting IAQ control methods in your child’s classroom for healthier school buildings. Or even researching air quality in your local area and finding out how your city addresses air pollution.
Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
At Total Mechanical Systems, we’re experts on home indoor air quality. It’s a lot easier to take clean the air in your home than you may think. For decades, the importance of indoor air quality has gone overlooked. Taking action this Clean Air Month can be as simple as choosing to start intervening in your own indoor space. IAQ control solutions fall into five main categories: ventilation, filtration, purification, humidity control and source control. There is no set way to go about improving IAQ, solutions are unique to each home. We suggest determining what the top air quality issues in your home are first. But, more than anything we suggest starting.
If you’re interested in improving the air quality in your home, contact us today! Total Mechanical Systems has a variety of systems and products that will juristically improve the quality of air in your home. Let us help you remove pollutants, bacteria, and allergens out of your home!
