What You Need to Know (NAPSA)—With every breath your children take, they are exposed to millions of airbornepollutants doing more harm than you realize. How can the air inside a home be so bad for children? About 80 percent of what you see floating in a ray of sunshine entering a home is dead human skin flakes. About 40 pounds of dust in your homeis generated per 1,500 square feet every year. Each speck of dust carries about 40,000 dust mites and other illness-causing bacteria and viruses. Pollens, ragweed and a variety of other allergens find their way into your homefrom outside. Airborne animal danderis a commontrigger for allergies and asthma, plus pet feces emit added contaminantsinto theair. If there is a smoker at home, second hand smoke can increase the risk of getting ear infections, upper respiratory infections and growth retardation. Children are more affected by poor indoor air quality because they are still growing and developing. Exposure to toxic substances and pollutants can affect all aspects of their development, including how fast they grow and their ability to fight off infections. Children are naturally curious, always touching, tasting and investigating their surroundings. According to Scientific American, a baby crawling on the floor inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day, as a result of the out gassing of carpets, molds, mildews, fungi and dust mites. Manyairborne pollutants are hard to detect and cause subtle An air purifier such as the Blueair Model 402 can help clean the air for your child. symptoms. Some symptoms may not show up for years. Common symptoms include headaches, tiredness, dizziness, nausea, itchy nose and scratchy throat. More serious effects from poor indoor air quality are asthma and other breathing disorders and cancer. One popular solution to the problem of indoor air pollution is high-quality indoor air purifiers. Blueair air purifiers, for example, use HEPASilent™ Filtration Tech- nology capturing 99.97 percent of the tiniest airborne pollutants at 0.1 micron and can be purchased for room capacities from 200 sq.ft. to 680 sq. ft. Blueair also completely cleans the air in the room up to five times an hour and does not emit ozone into the room. Before buying an air purifier, you may want to learn more about them by visiting sites such as www.cadr.org and www.energy star.gov. For more information on indoor air purifiers, visit www. blueair.com or call 1-888-2583247.
