You’ve waited for nine months to meet your sweet cherub. Looking at your baby, you realize you’d do anything to protect her and to keep her safe. And what’s safer than your home, right?
As a parent, you choose to limit your child’s time outdoors and in public places to avoid health risks like catching a flu or getting dengue from mosquito bites. Besides, your baby does not have full immunization yet, so it is better to keep her home.
Studies have shown that this is a common practice among parents. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, infants spend a majority of their time indoors, in the comfort of their own homes. This is during the first few months of their lives, when most of their little organs are still developing. This also means everything in their environment impacts their health—including the air they breathe.
Your baby’s health is then put in great danger when indoor air quality is compromised and pollution sets in.
6 effects of indoor air pollution and why babies should be protected from it
While you may be keeping your child away from the dangers of the outside world, you are, in turn, exposing her to the health hazards lurking within your home. This includes indoor air pollution.
“Their exposures can deliver higher doses as infants breathe more air per body weight than adults,” the report states. “Their respiratory and other systems are under development.”
This means that minute doses of environmental pollutants that might not affect adults, may have a great impact on your child’s health. It is due to the baby’s underdeveloped organs and the way her body is still learning how to function.
For example, infants, unlike adults, are prone to breathing through the mouth rather than the nose, which has passageways that help filter allergens and foreign objects from entering the lungs. Without those filters, mouth breathing tends to pull air pollutants deeper into the respiratory system and create a different composition of the pollutant mixture in the tiny air sacs of the lungs called alveoli.
When we hear “air pollution,” we immediately think that it will only affect our baby’s lungs. But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it doesn’t only harm their respiratory systems, but other organs as well.
These are the effects of indoor air pollution on babies:
- Since their lungs are still developing, air pollution can interfere with this biological process
- Their bodies are less able to metabolize, detoxify, and excrete the toxicants contained in air pollution
- Because their brains are still developing, neurotoxic compounds in air pollution can affect children’s cognitive development
- They inhale more air per unit of body weight than adults
- They are more active and therefore breathe in more air pollution
- Babies born to women who were exposed to air pollution during their pregnancy are more likely to be premature and low birthweight
Ways to prevent indoor air pollution
According to studies, indoor air pollution is not like how “air pollution” is typically depicted. It cannot be seen and it does not always have a smell. And the scary part of all this: the source of air pollution that baby is breathing may not always be the obvious answer.
Cigarette smoke and carbon emissions from the car parked in the garage are not the only culprits. Dust and fumes contribute to the lot of it—and these can come from daily household chores.
When you clean the house, you disturb dust particles, re-suspending it in the air. While cooking dinner, you release fumes from the stove and from what you’re cooking. When you renovate or repaint your home, you also fill the house with fumes from paints, solvents, and other construction supplies.
Aside from these, outdoor pollutants also penetrate your home.
Given these findings, how can parents protect their children from the harmful effects of indoor air pollution?
The best way to fight indoor air pollution is to keep your home spick and span by regular and thorough cleaning. Additionally, avoid smoking indoors, burning candles, and using air fresheners that add toxic chemicals to the air. It’s also advisable to use cleaner fuels and technologies to cook in well-ventilated areas.
Investing in a good and reliable air purifier is a must, too. The Dyson brand is highly recommended because it answers to particular needs.
Dyson Philippines
For whole-room purification, Dyson Pure Cool, for instance, utilizes the Air Multiplier technology that mixes and circulates purified air to reach every corner of the room.
For personal use, on the other hand, the Dyson Pure Cool Me, Dyson Philippines’ newest and latest purifier, has the Core Flow technology that projects a precise stream of purified air wherever and whenever you need it.
This makes Dyson Pure Cool Me the perfect choice to use in a personal space whether for work or relaxation. It has a smooth 70˚ oscillation that allows rotation from side to side to efficiently deliver airflow through a 70˚ range. You’re not only guaranteed of cool air coverage but also assured that you breathe clean air. You don’t even have to worry if you have a newborn baby or a child with asthma as they won’t inhale impurities.
Dyson Pure Cool Me captures gasses and 99.95 percent of ultrafine particles from the air, including outdoor air pollution, like tree pollen and vehicle exhaust fumes. It also catches particles from laser printer toner, pet dander, and disintegrated feces. This is possible with the machine’s sealed filter that combines an activated carbon and glass HEPA filter.
Dyson Pure Cool Me is quite handy, too. It can be set right next to the baby’s crib or playpen, or placed on the child’s study desk or bedside table. You can bring it to your place of work, exercise, and pleasure. You won’t get bothered because this personal purifier fan doesn’t create excess noise at all. There’s a layer of acoustic attenuation foam in the machine’s base that takes care of such concern.
Another cool feature of the Dyson Pure Cool Me is the night-time mode that allows you to set the sleep timer anywhere between 15 minutes and 9 hours. Hence, you can keep cool and comfortable while taking a rest or having a good night’s sleep. For sure, you won’t get disturbed by the quiet settings and dimmed display.
Having a personal air purifier like Dyson Pure Cool me allows the user, such as a newborn baby or a child with asthma, to have clean air within their personal space and have the maximum benefit from it.
For more information about Dyson, visit the Dyson website.
SOURCES: United Nations Environment Programme, NCBI, World Health Organization, WHO
Also read: Dyson Pure Cool: Is it worth the investment?