Have you ever noticed how there are more ozone alert days in summer than in the cooler months of the year?
Or perhaps you’ve remarked that the smog seems worse or the air looks less clear than you’ve remembered from past summers.
If this rings a bell, you are not imagining things. Toronto’s worsening air quality is particularly concerning as population density increases and air and waterway pollution along with it.
But if you don’t live within Toronto’s city limits, this doesn’t mean you are off the hook. One recent study showed that 90 percent of Canadians live within 160 km (90 miles) of the United States border. As our close southern neighbor continues to diverge from its former focus on environmentally sound policies, we are likely to feel the fallout in increasing environmental toxicity at all levels.
Is there anything you can do to reduce the coughing, respiratory irritation, breathing difficulties, headaches, skin itching and overall discomfort of summer air and water pollution? We are glad you asked! Read on to find out how to protect yourself and your family this summer!
Dirty Summer Air Is Toxic—and Potentially Deadly!
In 2017, a research study announced that 7,700 premature deaths in Canada occur each year that can be directly linked to air pollution.
That is 7,700 deaths that could have been prevented, not to mention a host of illnesses and aggravated health symptoms caused by toxic air and water.
We realize it might be challenging to wrap your mind around just how poisonous our planet is becoming. And we know this isn’t the most pleasant subject to contemplate; we hate it, too!
But the truth is, as world powers duke it out in the ongoing war between profitability and sustainability, we need to take matters into our own hands NOW to live healthy lives and create the same for our children.
So let’s talk about what you can do to purify your own indoor air, starting right now!
Schedule Your Summer Air Conditioning Maintenance Service
A clean air conditioning unit is a healthier air conditioning unit, as well as a more efficient one. The truth is, you need only one preventative maintenance service done per year to see measurable differences in both your annual energy costs for cooling AND your indoor air quality!
You may be thinking, “But my A/C unit seems to be working fine, and it looks clean enough, and it isn’t that old. Why do I need to schedule maintenance for it?”
Imagine that you decide not to dust your home for a year. Regular use keeps your countertops and other surfaces relatively clean. But then one day you decide to look inside your cabinets or your closets and are shocked to see the dust piling up.
This is what your air conditioner—the heart of your whole cooling system—will look like on the inside after a year of use without any maintenance. The impact worsens if you have forgotten to change the air filter—the lungs of your system—during high-use months.
Over time, the dust, dirt and debris build up and enter your air duct system, where they get trapped. With every blast of air through your duct system, a portion of that particulate matter gets pushed back out your air registers and you breathe it in.
With any one of our three value-added, money-saving tune-up and protection plans, you get a full cleaning, a safety check, a tune-up and efficiency-producing preventative maintenance that lasts all year long.
From there, moving parts are checked and lubricated, worn parts are replaced, your electrical connections are checked for safety, your thermostat is checked for accuracy, and the end result is a safer, more efficient and effective A/C unit that runs cleaner to keep your family healthy!
Clean Your Air Conditioner’s Circulatory System: The Air Ducts
If your air conditioner is the heart of your cooling system and your air filter is the lungs, then your air ducts are the circulatory system.
Remember the example from the previous section about not dusting your home for a year? Now imagine instead that you decide not to dust your home for a decade. Can you imagine what it might look like inside your closets and cabinets, not to mention right out in the open, after 10 years of no cleaning?
This gives you a pretty good idea of what might be hiding inside your indoor air duct system. Your air ducts, like most people’s air ducts, are out of sight, out of mind. You don’t see them, so you figure no news is good news and everything must be working well enough.
But over time, your air ducts, like everything else in life, begin to age. They start to sag, and then they start to leak. Dirt, dust and debris begin to accumulate. During wet months, mould and mildew spores enter your air ducts and begin to multiply, sending out spores to seek new spots in your home to colonize.
In winter, insects and small wild visitors find your air ducts welcoming and warm, a safe spot to spend the cold months. When they depart in spring, they leave behind lots of things you don’t want to think about!
With any one of our three professional air duct cleaning packages, in less than one day, you can have all of that trapped matter securely removed, leaving behind clean, sparkling air to safeguard your family’s health.
Heart, Lungs, Circulatory System, Check—Now What?
From here, we highly recommend installing either a HEPA filtration system or a UV air purification system. Either one can be retrofitted to work with any existing duct system, and portable versions of each are also available.
Give Us a Call!
Need help purifying your summer indoor air? Contact us online or give us a call at 905-549-4616!
