How Triggers In The Home Can Affect Asthma Sufferers

How Triggers In The Home Can Affect Asthma Sufferers

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

You may be surprised to know that asthma effects one in 11 children in the UK. In total a whopping 5.4 million people in the UK are currently receiving treatment for asthma.

What’s more, children with asthma who are living in damp and mouldy homes are more likely to experience coughing and wheezing. This is because damp and mouldy environments lead to the dispersion of mould spores, which can aggravate the symptoms of certain asthma sufferers. If you are currently experiencing damp and mould problems in your home then it’s strongly advised that you consider ventilating your home in order to improve the health of any asthma sufferers living in your household.

Homes with high humidity levels provide the perfect breeding ground for house dust mites and researchers suggest that these are a possible trigger for up to 80% of asthma attacks!

Known as allergens, house dust mites, their droppings and rotting carcasses can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks in allergy sufferers. This is because when an asthma sufferer comes into contact with something that irritates their airways such as allergens, the muscles around the walls of the airways tighten, narrowing the airways and making it harder to breathe. In order to reduce the population of dust mites quickly and effectively, you need to provide adequate ventilation to reduce humidity levels.

The Sefton Council project was set up to support families with children suffering from asthma, EnviroVent’s PIV units were installed in sixteen homes, in order to improve indoor air quality and dust mite allergies. The feedback received from the questionnaires (sent out just after the units were fitted) was overwhelming. The majority of families involved in the project experienced positive improvements in the health of their children and in the indoor air quality, meaning that any previous mould and condensation problems were a thing of the past!

EnviroVent have a whole range of ventilation products that are designed to minimise the amount of moisture in the home. Positive Input Ventilation (PIV), a concept designed to filter fresh air throughout the home, can solve your humidity-based problems.