Indoor Air Quality

Indoor Air Quality and Your Home (NYS Department of Health) Suffering from problems of stale air, cooking odors, excessive condensation, mold, furnace soot, gas smells, or general poor health that you think might be related to your home emvirnment? Download this pdf.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition The Peter family from New York City was living in the charred remains of a fire ravaged house with no utilities, and no hope of restoring the house due to inadequate insurance. Their youngest child, Ashley suffers from asthma which worsened after the fire due to the constant inhalation of smoke particles. They contacted ABC TV’s Extreme Makeover, which contacted AllergyBuyersClub (ABC).

Outdoor Air Quality

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a system of quantifying the quality of the ambient air we breathe. The AQI reading for a given day is based on the critical pollutants and upon pollutants with high readings. The major air pollutants used to determine the AQI are ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Smog is a product of vehicle exhaust and sunlight.

The AQI is divided into six categories ranging from good to hazardous. Good is green, and ranges from 0-50. The next level is moderate, which is yellow and ranges from 51-100. The third level is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and is orange. It ranges from 101-150. The fourth level is unhealthy, which is red and ranges from 151-200. Very unhealthy is purple, and ranges from 201 to 300. The hazardous level, rarely seen in the United States, is black and has an AQI of 301+.

Index Value	Air Quailty	Caution Zone	Advisory
0 to 50	Good	No health impacts are expected.	None
51 to 100	Moderate	Unusually sensitive individuals should limit prolonged outdoor exertion	No health impacts are expected.
101 to 150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Caution for active children, adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma.	Children, active adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
151 to 200	Unhealthy	Warning for active children, adults, and people with respiratory disease. Caution all else	Everyone may begin to experience health effects and should limit prolonged outdoor exertion; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious effects and should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion.
201 to 300	Very Unhealthy	Everyone may experience more serious effects and should limit outdoor exertion	Peple with repiratory disease or heart disease, the elderly, and children should avoid any outdoor activity; everyone else should avoid prolonged exertion.
301 to 500	Hazardous	All take warning	The entire population is likely to be affected. Everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors.

Urban Canyons

Urban canyons trap air. Local sources of pollution may be long-term (dry cleaning establishments, power plants, factories, loading docks), short term (roof tarring, demolition, construction, high pressure cleaning, dumpsters, unsanitary debris), and seasonal (pollen, fungal spores, street fairs.

Diesel and non-diesel engine emissions come from traffic-related sources that are both mobile and temporary (i.e., idling) and long-term (truck routes and highways).

Smog is the product of vehicle exhaust and sunlight.