You may blame your sickliness on a bug you got from a coworker, but the culprit may be your own home.
If your symptoms are related to being in parts of your home, magically resolve themselves after you leave your home for a while, or if other people in your home experience the same symptoms as you, you may have what the EPA calls “sick building syndrome”.
Three things that contribute to sick building syndrome are poor air ventilation, chemical contaminants, and biological contaminants growing in your home. Ventilation refers to the exchange of indoor and outdoor air. Poor ventilation allows harmful gases and excessive moisture to build up in your home. Certain carpets, paints, solvents, wood based furniture, and air fresheners can emit volatile organic compounds. Their harmful effects include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination, nausea, and damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. If your home is poorly ventilated, you are more likely to be affected by VOC’s since they are not ventilated out of your home. According to the EPA, contaminants such as mold, pollen, and viruses may breed in stagnant water that has accumulated in ducrs, humidifiers, and drain pans, or where water has collected on ceiling tiles, carpeting, or insulation. Sometimes mold grows in your home because the humidity level in your home is too high. Properly ventilating your home can help with this. To solve sick building syndrome, remove sources of pollution, increase ventilation rates and air distribution, and get an air cleaner. Removing the sources of pollution includes regularly replacing your air filters and limiting the use of paints, adhesives, solvents, and pesticides to well ventilated areas. You can increase ventilation rates and air distribution by opening up a window, turning on your kitchen or bathroom exhaust fans, and maintaining furnaces, chimneys, and gas water heaters so that carbon monoxide is ventilated out the home. Your regular fiberglass air filter only catches larger dust particles. You will need an air cleaner with a high MERV rating to catch small particles that can hurt your indoor air quality.