5 Ways How Dirty Air Ducts Can Affect Your Family’s Health

If you haven’t been regularly cleaning your air ducts, then this article might be able to help you periodically clean your vents, filters, and air ducts.

Cleaning air ducts not only helps your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems clean, but it can also relieve you and your family of some symptoms that you might be mysteriously experiencing for a while now. If your eyebrows are raised as we speak, then don’t worry. We’ll help you understand some of the ways in how dirty air ducts can affect you and your family’s health.

But before we do that, let’s check what’s keeping your ducts dirty all this time.

What Are Hiding in Your Air Ducts

If you are able to check your air ducts, you’d be able to notice a lot of dust and debris inside your vents, filters, and ducts. But if you can’t, then it’s best to call a professional duct cleaning company that can help check what’s hiding inside those air ducts, causing a bad air quality inside your home. Some of the bad stuff includes:

– Mold growth, mold spores, and mildew

– Fungi colony and fungal spores

– Dust and dust mites

– Pet dander

– Allergens such as pollen

– Viruses and bacteria

– Insects and rodents, their feces, and diseases they bring

– Chemical pollutants and tobacco smoke by-products

Adverse Effects of Dirty Air Ducts to Health

You may wonder why no matter how much you take care of yourself and your family, you all experience various symptoms that you really haven’t had before or haven’t really triggered for a long time. Well, believe it or not, these symptoms might be caused by your dirty air ducts. Some of these symptoms include:

– Headaches

– Coughing 

– Sneezing

– Throat irritation

– Allergy attacks

– Wheezing 

– Difficulty in breathing

– Feeling unwell for unknown reason

– Lethargy

– Low-grade fever

And these symptoms may be due to a more serious health concern because of having dirty air ducts.

1. Worsen Pre-Existing Conditions

If you have family members with preexisting conditions, such as allergies, asthma or any respiratory disease, then having dirty air ducts can worsen or trigger their conditions because of the allergens circulating in your home. You may not notice it at first, but you may see your loved ones suffering from frequent asthma attacks or having a series of allergic reactions.

One way to prevent these from happening is through regular cleaning of air ducts and vents. You can call for a professional duct cleaning company to get rid of the nasty dirt build up, mold, fungi, pet dander, and allergens that can worsen your respiratory ailments.

2. Make You Tired All the Time

When you and your family are constantly exposed to air contaminated with bacteria, fungi, molds, and allergens, your immune system will start to fight back and that can make you feel more tired, unwell, and even lethargic at home.

3. Develop Sinus Conditions

If there are molds, fungi, and even dust spores growing in your HVAC unit, then that can trigger a mild type of sinus condition that may lead to sinus infections. You may notice that you and your family members feel more congested, your sinuses are more swollen, you feel some discomfort.

4. Develop a Common Cold

If you are having a lot of problems with a runny nose, sneezing and congestion, then you might be running down with a cold and it might be caused by dirty air ducts. Especially if you have symptoms like frequent sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes, for a long time, then it’s time to call for a professional to help clean those filters, vents, and air ducts.

5. Cause Skin Itchiness and Dryness

If the air that comes from your air ducts has molds or fungi, then you and your family members may catch skin diseases such as hives and eczema, and even worse rashes. 

Conclusion

Being exposed to dirty air ducts can potentially and negatively affect your health and may even lead to a serious disease. If you notice that you and your loved ones are suffering from these symptoms and you feel like these symptoms are related to your air ducts and vents, then it’s best to call Legacy Heating and Cooling to clean your air ducts. Breathing clean, fresh air is the best gift that you can give to yourself and to your family.

Legacy Heating specializes in HVAC maintenance and repair, such as replacement of air conditioners and furnaces, as well as cleaning humidifiers and air ducts. We’ll get rid of the bad stuff that keeps your air ducts and family in danger. Contact us today to get started.