3 things to avoid if you want to keep your carpets mold-free

In a study recently published in the journal Building and Environment, a research team from The Ohio State University’s Indoor Environmental Quality Laboratory found that carpets with higher concentrations of dust were more likely to grow mold than those with lower concentrations.

The team also found that fungi burrowed into the fibers of rugs made from natural materials, such as wool. (The mold the researchers found is fungal growth.)

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Opening windows for half an hour is a great way to cut indoor pollution, study finds

Households should open their windows for at least half an hour a day to flush out harmful chemicals produced by cooking, cleaning and smoking – even if there is no smell.

That’s the conclusion of a leading expert on indoor air pollution, who has found that household contaminants linger for much longer and in far greater quantities than had previously thought.

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Opening the window in your home will not flush out the chemicals in the air

The researchers suggest that the reason opening the doors and windows did not reduce chemical levels for more than a few minutes was because the chemicals were clinging to the walls and on surfaces in the home. As concentration levels in the air dropped, the chemicals were immediately replaced by chemicals detaching from these surfaces and floating into the air.

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Cleaning Fumes Linger a Long Time in Your Home — and Cracking a Window Doesn’t Help

The researchers took initial measurements of 19 different airborne chemicals and then threw open the windows. When the breeze was blowing through, concentrations of all chemicals dropped. But when they closed the windows, it took a maximum of about 55 minutes for the chemicals to reappear at basically the same levels.

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Opening your windows doesn’t help reduce indoor air pollution

Airing out our homes might not be as effective as we think. Chemicals released by cleaning or cooking can stick to walls, furnishings and other surfaces instead of wafting out when we open a window. These chemicals are all volatile, meaning they can evaporate into air, but the researchers wanted to see if they can linger on surfaces too.

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Airing Out Your Home Doesn’t Reduce Indoor Air Pollution, Study Finds

Many of the potentially harmful chemicals found in our homes linger on walls and other surfaces, suggests a new study out Wednesday. Unfortunately, ventilating rooms with fresh air or cleaning surfaces might not do much to reduce our exposure to these contaminants.

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What’s in the air at home? Scientists reveal a whole new world of chemistry by stepping indoors.

Colorado State University atmospheric chemist Delphine Farmer had spent her entire career probing the complexities of outdoor air – how gases and particles in the atmosphere move, interact and change, and how human activities perturb the air we breathe.

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52 Ways to Detox Your Home and Live Healthier This Year

In June 2018, researchers from nine universities converged on one 1,200-square-foot manufactured home in Austin, Texas. They cooked and cleaned—not for their health, but for yours, as part of the HOMEChem (House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry) experiment, which aims to find out how everyday activities affect the quality of the air your family breathes. In particular, they looked at oxidants; volatile organic compounds, or VOCs; and particulate matter, all of which may have negative impacts on human systems. They’re still analyzing the data, but in the meantime, we caught up with Marina Vance, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who participated in the study, to chat about what she’s learned—and what it means for you.

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Indoor chemical pollution impacts often remain invisible

Furniture, flooring, construction materials, and humans and their habits are just some sources of the thousands of particles and gases that surround people living indoors. As scientists collect increasingly sophisticated data on the chemistry of the indoor environment, policy-makers and industry leaders are seeking more information on how to apply these findings to buildings and homes, experts said at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium.

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