La Jolla Real Estate: La Jolla Luxury Homes

Protect Your La Jolla Home From Moisture 

Indoor Air Quality, or IAQ, has become a growing concern for many La Jolla communities home owners. Air purifiers have become a billion dollar business, and La Jolla home improvement products such as low-VOC paints and formaldehyde-free flooring often tout clean composition. However, is indoor air quality really a problem in your La Jolla communities home? Are the above solutions really able to help clean the air in our La Jolla homes or workplaces?

For the past decade, the EPA has noted that indoor air can up to 10 times worse than the air outside. Indoor pollution sources that release gases or particles into the air are the primary causes of indoor air quality in homes, and inadequate ventilation can also increase indoor pollutant levels.

While air purifiers can help decrease these types of pollutants from the air through filtration and sterilization, unfortunately, a significant amount of pollution also stems from the off-gassing of difficult-to-remove volatile organic compounds. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, recent studies have shown that the most common indoor airborne pollutant is formaldehyde, which is used in building materials such as particle board and hardwood paneling, and permanent adhesives used in carpeting.

In fact, in order to address these issues regarding VOCs, the California Air Resources Board has decided to place caps on the amount of urea formaldehyde found in the above types of household materials. However, at this point, the question is whether these stringent rules will actually help decrease VOC levels from the air we breathe, and the real problem lies in the categorization of household products: some additives in paint and floor finishes may not be categorized as VOCs, but can still vaporize over time and damage the respiratory system.

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