Asthma Triggers
from the Indoor Environment
JMH Home Environmental Solutions provides comprehensive
services for all homeowners to reduce their exposure to allergens and toxins, which may cause or exacerbate asthma.
Your Home and Your Health
You may have heard that indoor air quality is worse than the air outside, but
just how much worse is it?
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a study in 1987 in which levels of approximately one dozen common organic pollutants were found to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas.
In Canada, the Healthy Indoors Partnership published a report in December 2005 called Promoting Solutions for Healthier Indoor Environments. The authors interviewed 1000 Canadians regarding health problems potentially related to the home environment.
The findings were as follows:
 | One in five households reported asthma and other respiratory problems |
| One in seven households reported allergies to family pets and high dust levels |
| One third of adult Canadians believe that the air quality in their homes affects |
| | their health |
Poor indoor air quality has been shown to cause or exacerbate a wide array of health effects, including allergies, asthma, and respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia to name but a few. In fact, according to the National Population Health Survey, asthma is one of the fastest-growing ailments for children, affecting 12% of Canadian children as well as the livelihood of 2.25 million Canadians 12 years and older.
Indoor air quality is the result of complex interactions among buildings, building systems and people and is affected by:
| Tighter energy efficient building construction methods; |
| Improperly designed and/or malfunctioning heating and ventilation systems and appliances; |
| The use of chemical products for cleaning and maintaining the home.
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JMH Home Environmental Solutions provides home environment assessment and consulting services for all homeowners to identify indoor air quality problems in the home. In all cases, analytical and visual home assessment results are presented in clear, plain language, together with simple recommendations to minimize exposure to toxins and allergens.
For full details, please visit our website at www.jmhsolutions.ca, or contact us at 604.879.0713.
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