Asthma and Basements

What is the correlation between asthma and basements?

The air in the basement is usually the worst air in the house. Due to gravity, the air settles there since it is the heaviest and most contaminated. While this air is not good for anyone, it can be particularly bad for persons with Asthma. Most people just breathe without giving it much thought. Breathe in and breathe out all day long. If you have asthma you value your breathing. If you knew what was in the air in the basement you would probably never go down there again.

What is Asthma?

Asthma is a reactive lung disease that is oftentimes inherited. There is no cure for asthma. Asthma is a chronic, long-term disease that inflames and narrows the airways of your lungs. Asthma symptoms can worsen at any time for a variety of reasons. Through lifelong vigilance of avoiding triggers along with medications symptoms can be managed.

What are Asthma Triggers? 

 Triggers are anything that makes your lungs react and cause asthma symptoms.

Knowing what causes your asthma symptoms is an important step to controlling your asthma. Identify your triggers and learn simple ways to limit your exposure or avoid them all together.

There are many kinds of Asthma triggers that can be in the basement including:

• Air Pollution the World Health Organization states that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution, with 1.5 million of these deaths attributable to indoor air pollution.

• Pet Dander and Insects Avoiding animal dander is important if animal dander is one of your asthma triggers. Asthmatic reaction may also be brought on by inhalation of dust mites and other allergenic insect parts and fragments.

• Mold and Mildew if you think you have a mold problem…you probably do. Having a musty smell in your home is a giveaway that something is wrong. Mold reduction is associated with significant improvement in asthma symptoms.

• VOCs   Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have large numbers of molecules evaporate and enter the air. Most cleaning products and air fresheners have VOCs as well as paints and plastics.

How can the Basement be made Safer for someone with Asthma?

Think of clean air in the basement being contaminated by something i.e., pollution, pet dander, mold and VOCs. These things that are added to the clean air. The additives are condensed in the basement air because it is mostly stagnant. The condensed bad air must be diluted if not removed altogether. Therefore the movement of air out of the basement brings in new air to lessen the concentrations of contaminates and improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). This is known as ventilation. Ventilation is necessary to maintaining good IAQ.

When it comes to removing indoor air pollution and humidity you need a ventilation system that works year round. The E-Z Breathe Ventilation System is a whole house ventilation system that expels the dampest, most humid & contaminated air from your basement to the outside. It replaces the air in the basement with fresher air from the upper floors four to six times per day automatically with no bucket to empty or filter to replace. This will improve the overall IAQ in the basement and the entire home.