Dear Reader,
We all make mistakes. Here are some Air Self-Care whoopsidaisies I’ve made that perhaps you can avoid:
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- Not reading air purifier directions: I’m a fairly savvy lady. When I ordered my first air purifier, I took it out of the box, plugged it in, turned it on, recycled the box and directions, and walked away happy that I was taking a meaningful step towards managing my recently discovered dust mite allergy. Six months later it was time to change the air filter. I followed the directions on the air filter replacement box to open up the air purifier and pop out the pre-filter. Much to my surprise, the interior air filter was still sealed in plastic to protect it from contamination during shipping. Rookie mistake! About a month later, I visited a similarly savvy lady (engineering school buddy) with the same air purifier, opened up hers and found the filter in her air purifier was ALSO still sealed in plastic. The moral of the story: always read the directions! Even you smarties out there! Sometimes internal filters come sealed.
- Buying something pretty online: I was finally decorating my office and decided to buy some really beautiful wallpaper from Etsy. The company Etsy has a number of wonderful programs, including goals to offset 100% of emissions related to their business by 2030. The wall paper I found was so beautiful, I couldn’t imagine it bringing anything into my life except happiness / pizzazz. It arrived, we installed it, and the VOCs (volatile organic compounds – i.e., off-gassing chemicals) were so strong they made us ill and we had to run fans with windows fully open in the office for a couple weeks to make the room habitable again. The moral of the story: a) there is no direct correlation between beauty and VOC content, and b) just because a company sells many products that are healthful, does not mean that all of their products are healthful.
- Forgetting the last window: During the summer of 2023 Canadian wildfires, our area was seriously engulfed in smoke for a period of time. We took precautions to close up the house and run our air purifiers at full speed to keep the smoke levels in the house as low as possible. When I went upstairs, it was still incredibly smoky and I assumed it was because the smoke was so intense outside it was getting in through leaks and cracks in the walls. A couple days into the smoke event, I popped my head into the master bedroom closet and saw that the tiny window inside was cracked open. I was quite surprised I had completely forgotten this window while battening the hatches! Once I closed the window, the air purifier upstairs was able to bring the smoke levels down and keep them down. The moral of the story: when it comes to air, even a small gap can lead to quite a large amount of outdoor air pollutants getting inside.
- Forgetting Air Self-Care practices at parties with people I love: I joke around that COVID-19 is a Christmas disease because I’ve gotten it twice – both times at Christmas. As we all know, the disease (and other airborne diseases like the flu, RSV and measles) can travel through air, and Air Self-Care practices are one of the ways we can protect ourselves from getting sick. The reality is that most people’s homes are not designed to appropriately freshen up air for the amount of people that show up to a party. Homes are generally designed for low-occupancy usage (i.e., just the people that live there). Packing a poorly ventilated home with people during a season where sicknesses are rampant (e.g., flu season) is a recipe for partygoers heading home with more than just party favors. The moral of the story: Being around people we love does not negate a disease’s power to travel through the air. We need to take Air Self-Care practices with us, even during the holidays.
- Succumbing to company peer pressure: I work in the green building industry alongside a number of air quality experts. A company I worked for back in the day had yearly company retreats where everyone got together off-site for team building exercises. One year they took us to an outdoor retreat center and put “roasting marshmallows together around the campfire” on the very packed agenda. The retreat center was so dedicated to ensuring our team had the promised retreat experience that when it started raining, they set us up with a campfire covered by a large awning. As the fire got going, the smoke got trapped under the awning to such a degree that in some spots it was difficult to see the person next to you. At the time I toughed it out because I wanted to show “team spirit” – but looking back, I’m really surprised that not one person stopped to say – hold the phone, this is an air quality situation. The moral of the story: Waiting for the smartie-pants next to you to “say something” about an obvious air quality issue is not a surefire way to healthy breathing. Speak up!
Happy breathing to you!
M