Home Owners Can Provide a Healthier Environment with Regular Duct Cleaning

Allergies and asthma have always been a problem.
Since your youngest memories, you can recall sitting up in bed trying to take a deep breath. You would chew a very strong piece of mint gum, drink a glass of ice cold water, pile your pillows so that you were, indeed, sitting, rather than lying in bed. At times you would hum to yourself so that you could not hear the frightening wheezing that was a part of so many of your sleepless nights.
Looking back, you realize now that your anxiety was contributing to your problem, but the fact that there were no child doses for any kind of asthma medication 50 years ago meant that this sleepless nights were rather common. When you were worried enough or coughing enough, you would eventually walk down the hall to your parents room and finally announce that you were having an asthma attack. One of your parents would take you to the hospital, the other would stay home with your younger sister. The nurses in the emergency room would hook you up to oxygen, often giving you a steroid shot, and your exhausted body would finally relax enough so that you could breath. Once your parent got you home you would finally fall asleep, completely worn out from the whole process.
Now that you are a parent of a young child who suffers from not only allergies, but asthma, you try to do everything in your power so that your seven year old daughter never has to be gripped with that nighttime fear of not being able to catch her breath. From cleaning your ducts once a year to making sure that she visits the allergist every couple of months, you feel like you have the resources to have a better handle on this alarming health condition.
When you built your home you made sure that the attic insulation installation was done with the best materials for families with allergies, and you believe those efforts have benefitted your daughter. And even though you have a home that is free of both smoke and pets, have been consistent about cleaning your ducts so that the everyday allergens and pollens that get into your home are not recirculated.
Professional Air Duct Cleaning Well Help Your Family Breathe Easier
Cleaning your ducts is especially important for families that have allergies, but it is also a major advantage to every home owners. While large hospitals and other healthcare facilities have long known the benefits of cleaning air ducts on a regular basis, following these same procedures in a home has only recently grown in popularity. For homes that have pets or smokers, cleaning your ducts is essential if you want to avoid health problems in both infants and the elderly.
Consider these facts about the benefits of replacing old attic insulation in your home and in scheduling regular duct cleaning services:

• 80% of Americans are exposed to dust mites on a daily basis and 60% are exposed to pet dander, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Both of these conditions can cause health problems, particularly for people who suffer from allergies and asthma.
• 25% of a house?s heat loss can be attributed to a poorly insulated attic.
• Only 25% of the lint is caught by dryer lint screens. Unfortunately, the remaining 75% sticks to the walls of the dryer vent, creating a fire hazard.
• 25% to 40% of the energy used for heating or cooling a home is wasted. This is partially because HVAC systems are forced to work harder because of contaminants that build up, a problem that can be addressed with regular duct cleaning.
• Experts recommend that homeowners should have air ducts cleaned every three to five years to provide maximum cooling and heating efficiency.
• The leading cause of residential clothing dryer fires is failure to clean the lint traps and the duct work. In fact, 34% of these fires start this way.

If you grew up with childhood asthma and allergies, you know the pain and fear in not being able to take a deep breath. Are you doing everything you can to make sure your children are living in a healthier environment?