Health Issues of Uncleaned Air Duct Cleaning

By | February 25, 2013

National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NCDCA) is an HVAC system inspection and maintenance association. Its mission is to provide industrial standards in cleaning methods of air ducts in HVAC systems. According college of Allergists, America, 50% of all illness is due to degraded indoor air quality. In this article, we discuss what the implication of unresolved air duct cleaning are.

Air ducts are made of mild steel sheets and fiberglass materials. These ducts play critical part in influencing the environment in a building and is provided for circulation of hot/cool air and ventilate rooms.

What and how of air duct contamination?FD Fan
Air duct contamination is a major problem of indoor air degradation. Air ducts get contaminated by dust, dirt, mold, bacteria and fungus as they are brought from outdoor through mechanical ventilation.

As air ducts get moisture from the heat or cold air, mold and other microbial material can easily adhere to the air ducts and thrive. Other mode of contamination comes from leakage in the air ducts, clogging of water, malfunctioning of dehumidifier, etc. According to NCDCA, around 40 pounds of dust accumulates on an average per year in a six-room home. This indicates the contamination is more in indoor air than outdoor. This indicates your home may affected even worse.

Health risk of HVAC
On every run of HVAC system, dust and microbial material blown into homes and degrades indoor air quality. When such impure air is inhaled, it results in respiratory disorders like asthma, tightness in chest, lung infections and bronchitis. People with asthma will tend to have more difficulties in breathing air. Since the rate of breathing rate is higher in children, they are at risk of developing respiratory diseases.

ID FanApart from respiratory diseases other problems like eye irritation, sinus congestion, scratchy throat, and hypersensitivity can occur as well. When specific disease causing germs make their way into the body, they may cause serious illness. It is therefore sensible to clean air duct regularly. It is considered necessary as part of maintaining HVAC system.

According to World Health Organization’s (WHO) statistics on indoor air quality, there is one death in every 20 seconds, which stresses the need of improving indoor air quality. As most of people spend their time maximum time in their homes, there is an increase in potential risk of unresolved air dust cleaning.

There are many benefits in cleansing air ducts is that it protects your health from the harmful consequences of unclean HVAC and saves money, in the form of good health. NADCA suggests that for better results air ducts should be cleaned and maintained by certified HVAC professionals.

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