As winter starts to come on here in Ontario there is less opportunity to air out your home by opening the window.  In a month or so it will be off limits until sometime in April, most likely.  Indoor air can get pretty stale in the meantime.  Many people will choose one of the two cheaper alternatives to “freshen” their indoor air – air fresheners, or Febreeze.

But are these really good alternatives to get better air?

Let’s look at air fresheners first.  Almost all are made up of varying concentrations of four basic ingredients: formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, p- dichlorobenzene, and aerosol propellants.  Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and is used as a preservative, in fact, it is embalming fluid.  It is in most manufactured goods these days and is one of the bigger threats to your health, as it can reach significant concentrations in the home from the off-gassing of consumer products.   And that begs the questions: why would anyone knowingly add more?

Next come petroleum distillates.  There are a variety of these found in most air fresheners and are used for a variety of reasons. Some are used for fragrance, others to destroy odours.  But the fact of the matter is that if you wouldn’t recommend people go around sniffing gas (which is a petroleum distillate) you probably shouldn’t use air freshener.  Now, the degree of toxicity will vary per compound, but I think it’s say to say you should avoid breathing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), no matter what they are.

P-dichlorobenzene gets special mention due to its’ ubiquitous use.  It is used to control odour, and while it officially hasn’t been classed as a known carcinogen…it is.  It has been banned in many public workplaces in the states, as it should be, being the bastard offspring off mustard gas and benzene (that’s not how you make it, but if you added those two together, theoretically, you’d get dichlorobenzene). But hey, it controls mold and mildew…not by being extremely toxic though, by talking gently to them and making them see the error of their ways. Seriously though, if it kills those things, what do you think it does to you?

Propellants are basically pressurized gases that force the fragrances out once you release them.  This seems innocuous enough, except that they are usually things like propane, butane, dimethyl ether, and other organic compounds that are carcinogens.  Though they may not be officially recognized as such just yet.

If you know a bit about chemistry you may have noticed some common traits among the chemicals listed.  If not, I’ll point them out here:

• They are all organic compounds (meaning carbon based)
• They are all fairly volatile (they vapourize easily)
• They are all carcinogenic (they all cause cancer)
• They are lipophilic (they are soluble in fat, not water, and hence are very difficult to excrete)

The last point needs a bit more explanation. Many people are familiar with the term “bio-accumulation,” which means that certain chemicals, once trapped in a living body, simply move up the food chain as one organism eats the one below it.  This is because any particular animal in the chain can’t get rid of it, and hence just stores it in its’ fat. That means these chemicals are lipophilic.  Continuing on, all that air freshener you’ve smelled over the years is stored somewhere in you.

Now that we’ve gone over this, would you use one in your home?

If your home has odour problems, you have to find out the root cause and address it.  While this may be considerably more expensive upfront, it will be dwarfed by medical costs and decreased quality of life later on. There truly are no quick fix magic bullets.

Still putting off cleaning your ducts? Here are a few more reasons why you need to get on the ball.

Reason 5 – You Gross Your Guests Out

Remember when you were a kid and went over to some new friends’ house and when the door opened you were blasted in the face with noxious gas? And how on every subsequent visit you opened the door, moved aside to let the initial wave blow past you, steeled yourself, and went in? Are you sure that isn’t your house now? Stop making your guests wonder if their relationship with you is worth breathing all that dank air. House stank is never alright.

Reason 4 – You Spend Most of Your Time Indoors

As Canadians, we spend an average of 90% of our time indoors, according to the CMHC. Now that winter is almost upon us again, I’d guess that we spend more than 90% generally. This means that all winter you are breathing whatever air is in your home.  And this may not seem bad, but…

Reason 3 – Your Air is Filthy

The saying is “Out of sight, out of mind”, and that certainly is true of air. Sometimes when the sun is shining brightly through the window you can see some of the bigger particles floating around, but by and large they are innocuous. The other stuff – mould spores, dust mites & their poop, and chemicals are rife in the home. Depending on where you get your estimates from, indoor air is 10-100 times more polluted than outdoor air. So get an air purifier.  Yeah, that’s not really related to ducts, but we sell those too J

Reason 2 – Your Lungs Are Vulnerable

Of all the ways in which foreign objects can enter your body, your lungs present the easiest barrier to entry. They were made to absorb, and they do their job well…perhaps a little too well for the modern environment. There are only cilia and mucous to protect your sensitive alveoli, and if you smoke (even occasionally), your cilia are gone. It’s funny how much fuss people put into safeguarding their food and drink, considering the digestive tract is designed to handle pretty much whatever physical or chemical matter it comes across.  Yet the exact opposite is true of air. People don’t care that much, but your lungs are more susceptible.

Reason 1 – Air is the #1 Thing We Consume

Over the course of the day, you consume roughly 35 pounds of air, far outpacing your consumption of food and drink combined.  Considering how people are so fussy about food it’s unlikely any given trio can’t decide on a kind of pizza to order, don’t you think that same kind of concern should be extended to our biggest consumable? It should, especially given points 2 & 4.

And that’s about that folks.  If you have any ideas for future post topics please let me know.