Why are Air Filters Important?

Filters are not only to protect your home's heating and air conditioning system, they protect you and your loved ones. Indoor air quality is a growing concern in homes, schools, and hospitals. Poor air quality can have a negative impact on your overall comfort level, as well as aggravate medical conditions such as asthma or allergies. Inadequate ventilation in the home can increase indoor pollutants such as common household dust, pet dander, pollen, dust mites, and cigarette smoke just to name a few. Filters can improve the air quality by capturing and removing these particles and pollutants, thus increasing the quality of air circulated throughout your home via your heating and air conditioning system. Be sure to change your filters as recommended to ensure the best possible air quality for your home and family.

Pet Dander in your home

Pet Dander, how nasty does that sound? If you have pets; chances are you have Pet Dander dancing around in the air you are breathing. Most people assume that Pet Dander comes from the hair off Dogs and Cats, but it is actually your pets dry skin and saliva. Having a Pet Dander allergy is very common and it can make some people very sick. If you are someone who has severe symptoms chances are you probably don't have any family pets, to some you may have only minor allergies related to Pet Dander or none at all and choose to deal with it simply because you love your little Pug and your big Golden Retriever...guilty as charged. There are some steps you can take that can improve the indoor air quality in your home and reduce the amount of Pet Dander dancing around your home. Keep your pets away from furniture, off beds, couches and your favorite recliner. If you groom your pets try to do it outside or maybe in the garage. It is also important that you keep your pet clean and wash the dander from the skin of your pet to keep the allergy out of your house. Some pretty obvious steps to reducing pet dander in your home is to stay on top of vacuuming, and basic household cleaning, if you have carpeting in your home you should shampoo your carpets and wash large throw rugs. Of course we have saved the best step for last and that is changing your furnace and air conditioner filters regularly as most pleated filters will help to eliminate Pet Dander from your home. The filter may be one of the most vital steps as it will actually trap the dander not allowing it back into the air that you and your family breathe. All of the pleated filters we carry will help to eliminate this nasty little thing we call Pet Dander from the air in your home.

Facts About Indoor Air Quality

Most people are not aware of the many truths behind the quality of our indoor air (IAQ). A matter of fact the Environmental Protection Agency ranks indoor air quality as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, and 5 out of 10 Americans are not aware of this. This is a major problem that should not be overlooked especially since indoor air pollution can be 5 times higher (and occasionally 100 times higher) than outdoor levels. These numbers are unbelievable...so what can I do you ask? You can get rid of that basic furnace filter and upgrade to a high quality pleated filter by Flanders Filters Inc. or 3M Filtrete and change you furnace or a/c filter every 90 days as recommended, but there are a number of other things you can do to help with this major issue. For more information and ways to reduce the dangers of indoor and outdoor air quality, visit http://www.lungusa.org/, http://www.healthhouse.org/ and http://www.filtrete.com/.

• Over half of the United States population lives in areas which have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. (Source: American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2004 Report)
• It’s estimated that 81 million Americans live in areas with unhealthful short-term levels of particle pollution and 66 million live in areas with chronically unhealthful levels of particle pollution. (Source: American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2004 Report)
• Air pollution found in large and mid size U.S. cities increases the risk of premature death from lung cancer and heart disease. (Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2002)
• Air pollution contributes to lung disease, which claims close to 341,500 lives in America every year and is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. (Source: American Lung Association, 2002)
• It is estimated that 10.5 million Americans had an asthma attack in 1999. More than a third of them (at least 3.5 million) were children under the age of 18. (Source: American Lung Association, Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality, 2002)
• Asthma, which can be triggered by either indoor or outdoor air pollution, annually accounts for an estimated three million lost workdays for adults and 10.1 million lost school days in children. Asthma costs our nation $12.7 billion in health care costs annually. (Source: American Lung Association, Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality, 2002)
• Approximately 160 million Americans are breathing unhealthy air