COPD and Indoor Air

It’s summer. Our focus has been on the outdoors. The big topic of conversation is usually the weather.

Spring brought snow and blizzards in May to some of the USA. In August, we have still been confronted with 90° to 100° temperatures, with heavy rain and storms. Tornadoes have damaged homes, as well as towns. We know the trouble that we face. We make sure we are dressed appropriately for the outdoors and maybe a sweater to wear in a restaurant, we may check pollen counts and even barometric pressure to see what we might encounter outdoors. Bugs torment us and mosquitoes bite. Sweat is common when mowing the yard, even walking to the car. Some may see the groundhogs warning on Groundhog Day and they may read the Farmer’s Almanac to predict the weather and other information.

Have you noticed your indoor environment?

Do you notice though that none of this helps to prepare us as we are in our homes and other indoor places? I stop and look around each room. I ask myself if our house is safe for us in the summer. Is it?

Questions to consider about the indoor environment

• Is your food put away?
• Have you changed your furnace filter? It should be changed every month.
• Did you know that the filters in your nebulizer, c-pap and more should also be changed every 6 months to 1 year. You may want to ask your oxygen or home health provider and follow their recommendations. I do shake out the filter in my concentrator regularly and that helps a lot, it gets changed when Home Health schedules a visit to my house.
• My oxygen concentrator’s filter gets changed once a year, or when home health decides it should be checked. They test the concentrator and change the filter.
• Do you use your air conditioner and/or fan? You should if use them if you can. They can bring you better breathing air and hopefully help you breathe better.
• Get someone lined up to help you with ceiling fans. They should be dusted at least every month or more. That dust collects so easily, and you will likely breathe in and it will fall on you.
• Breathing in that lightweight and falling dust can fall on you or the air around you and affect your breathing.
• Floors should be vacuumed and swept on a regular schedule and as needed, because this will help to keep the dust down. Dusting the furniture as well. Dust affects me so bad.
• Make sure batteries are charged or changed too. Smoke detectors and CO detectors should be changed regularly.
• This is the time when we often harvest our own gardens or maybe buy from the Garden Market, or whatever it’s called in your area. Make sure to wash the produce. Isn’t wonderful to have fresh produce? Yum!

What triggered this story title is, our indoor air

Since we purchased our home about 10 years or so, we haven’t done much to revamp it. We would vacuum and dust regularly, the same for the scouring and cleaning in the kitchen and bathroom. Bedrooms as well. This house had a Berber carpet in much of the lower level and in the bedrooms in the upper level. When we looked at this house and even checked it later, there were constantly candles lit and air fresheners used, we wondered why but didn’t think too much about it. As the overpowering candle smells and air fresheners began to fade, this house had a musty odor. We vacuumed, scrubbed, and aired things outside. For all these years we labored over this. I felt like I was breathing/eating dust if I got close to that carpet. That was causing me to struggle.

We decided enough. My husband found a contractor to tear out the carpeting and put in new flooring. Oh my, this house smells so nice and clean! It’s amazing! No matter how we worked on cleaning that carpet, we didn’t touch the odors and dust! The previous owner had pets too and they did go on the carpet we found out. It’s gone now! The air smells so clean and fresh. It smells honest, what ever that means. That my friends is “Indoor Air”. I am breathing better and feeling so much happier. Getting rid of the indoor pollution that was in those carpets and old flooring, has given us fresh and healthy air. That’s so important for our COPD and all.

The concern of COPD and indoor air

COPD is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. This makes it hard to breathe. We must make sure that we are breathing in the best and cleanest air possible. We can’t change the outside air, but we can change the indoor air. I will never have carpet again and only use scatter rugs. It’s amazing. Breathe easy friends.