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Public Health
Seattle & King County
401 5th Ave., Suite 1300
Seattle, WA 98104
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Phone: 206-296-4600
TTY Relay: 711
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Toxic Hazards
Indoor air quality
Determining the quality of indoor air
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 The quality of the air in your home can impact your health or the health of those you live with. Most people are aware that outdoor air pollution can significantly affect people's health, but Environmental Protection Agency studies have shown that levels of air pollutants indoors may be anywhere from 2 to 5 times greater than outdoors, and in some cases more than 100 times greater.
Indoor air pollution can be a real concern because people can spend as much as 90% of their time indoors, and much of that time is in their homes. You can have an immediate or long-term reaction to poor indoor air quality.
One way to determine whether you have an indoor air quality problem is to look at how you or those in your household feel when home.
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Do you or others sneeze and cough in your home? |
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Do you or others in your home wake up congested or with a headache? |
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Do you or others in your home often have an irritated throat, nose or eyes? |
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If you or others in your home have any of the above symptoms, are they more common in a certain part of the house? |
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Does anyone in your home have frequent asthma episodes or respiratory infections? |
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Do you notice that you feel better when you are away from home? |
If you have answered "yes" to any of these questions you may have an indoor air quality concern.
Possible sources of poor indoor air quality
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- Smoking indoors, smoke drifting in from outdoors, or smoke being carried indoors on clothing
- Other things that burn, like oil, gas, kerosene, charcoal briquettes, wood or candles
- Central heating, cooling or humidifying systems
- New or recently installed building materials and furnishings, including carpets and certain wood pressed products
- Household cleaning and maintenance products
- Personal care products, like hair spray or soaps
- Too much moisture in the house
- Mold & mildew:
- Tracking pesticides and pollens in on shoes and clothes
- Improper circulation of fresh, outside air
The health or quality level of the air in a home is determined by how much and how often pollution is getting into the air. For example, if you have a properly adjusted gas stove, it will emit significantly less carbon monoxide than one that is not properly adjusted. Also, good ventilation contributes to improving air quality:
Ways to improve indoor air quality
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Managing biological and chemical pollution factors, like pesticides and mites
- Don't smoke indoors.
- Circulate fresh, outdoor air through your home every day to remove stale air and move pollutants out.
- Wipe feet off before coming inside, and take shoes off in the house in order to keep out pesticide contamination.
- Replace or clean furnace and air filters when they are dirty. Check them regularly, at least every two months. Use a "high efficiency particulate filter" (HEPA).
- Use ventilating fans over the stove and in the bathroom and be sure they are vented to the outside of the house.
- Keep ventilating fans clean.
- If you have mold, or areas that develop mold, see the section below titled, "Keeping your home healthy and free of mold during the wet seasons."
- Use safe cleaning products, those without any of the signal words ("danger", "warning" or "caution"). If you do not use safe household products, read the label and follow the directions carefully.
- Vacuum carpets well and stuffed furniture well, wash linens weekly and dust regularly to keep the allergen "dust mites" to a minimum. Dust mites are microscopic bugs that live in the dust and our sloughed off skin.
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Managing combustible pollutants in your home, like natural gas
- Don't smoke indoors.
- Assure the gas flame in all appliances is blue, without much yellow. If there is a strong smell of natural gas, open the windows, leave the house, and call the gas company.
- Be sure to have good ventilation in rooms with working fireplaces and gas or wood stoves.
- Do not burn charcoal or kerosene heaters indoors:
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Keeping your home healthy and free of mold during the wet seasons
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Mold is a form of fungi. Mold is found in every moist indoor and outdoor environment year round. It grows naturally indoors, and can also enter your home on shoes, clothing, bags, animals, windows and ventilation systems. There is always a little mold in the air and on many surfaces. The mere presence of molds does not necessarily lead to symptoms. Mold may become a problem where there is excessive moisture, such as leakage in roofs, pipes, walls, plant pots, or where there has been flooding.
In King County, the wet seasons of fall, winter, and spring can mean more moisture in your home. Too much moisture can lead to mold and mildew. Although mold exposure does not always cause health problems, daily exposure has been known to cause respiratory problems, headaches, watery eyes, dizziness, lethargy, rashes and other reactions. Mold and other biological contaminants can trigger asthma, too.
Here are some suggestions to keep your home clear of molds:
Get excess moisture out of your home
- Flush the air two or three times a day (for three to four minutes, open all the doors and windows and let fresh air circulate through the home).
- Ventilate the bathroom and the kitchen with an exhaust fan.
- Keep shower curtain or bathtub sliding door open after bathing to increase air circulation.
- Assure that the dryer vents freely to the outside.
- Heat all the rooms in your home to keep moisture from forming on the walls and other surfaces of unheated areas.
Stop moisture from coming in
- Stop any leaks from the roof, poorly-drained gutters and plumbing.
- Stop water from entering basements and crawlspaces.
- Properly insulate walls and ceilings.
- Grade ground so that it drains surface water away from home.
Other preventive measures
- Use easy to clean paint and wallpaper, especially in bathrooms.
- Install a timer switch on your bathroom fan, and leave the fan on for 15 minutes after showering.
- When cooking, try to minimize simmering of liquids and foods.
- Keep furniture away from outside walls where mold might grow.
- Replacing carpet with wood or vinyl floor tiles will prevent some of the problems with carpeting.
Steps to eliminate existing mold in the home
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Clean up mold growing on surfaces by scrubbing it with regular soap and water. |
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Next, apply a bleach solution on the effected area (one part chlorine bleach to four parts water). |
Information for landlords and tenants
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Seattle Asthma provides free-in-home visits to Seattle residents that have a child with asthma. An Environmental Health Specialist will survey the home environment to identify things you can do to reduce the presence of asthma triggers.
To be eligible, you must be a resident of the City of Seattle and have a child with asthma or asthma-like symptoms. To make an appointment, please call Environmental Health Services at 206-205-4394.
- Learn about radon and your health
- EPA Indoor Air Quality
Several publications and guidelines that can be downloaded or ordered.
- Environmental Health Watch (EHW)
EHW helps people to protect themselves from serious environmental threats, influence corporate, government and personal actions, and avoid both imprudent complacency and unnecessary alarm.
- American Lung Association
Covers a wide variety of lung-related diseases from asthma to tuberculosis and more. Find detailed information on their "State of the Air" webpage at www.lungusa.org/air2001/sota_map.html
- Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control.
A comprehensive 1999 publication on biologically derived airborne contaminants from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. To order a copy, call (513) 742-6163 or e-mail: comm@acgih.org
Related Public Health webpages:
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related sites
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency
The Clean Air Agency maintains air quality standards to protect humans, prevent injury to plant and animal life and protect Puget Sound's panoramic views.
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Radon Outreach Program (Washington State Dept. of Health)
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King County Asthma Resources
 An estimated 22,209 King County children under 18 have asthma. It is the second leading cause of hospitalization in children in King County.
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 Health dangers of wood smoke
Though burning wood is as familiar to human experience as the home itself, inhalation of wood smoke may cause or aggravate respiratory illness and may trigger asthma or allergies.
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 Green Cleaning
Green Cleaning is using simple, homemade cleaning products that don't endanger you, children or the environment.
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