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Cleaning for health

When we think about air pollution, most of us probably think of car emissions, smoke from fires, and pollution from industrial factories. We are all aware of the link between breathing polluted air and increased respiratory symptoms, but what most people are not aware of is that indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than the air outside. Indoor air pollutants are the leading causes of asthma and breathing problems. Understanding and controlling common indoor pollutants can help reduce your risk of indoor health concerns.

What Causes Indoor Air Pollution?
Many factors contribute to indoor air pollution. The air in our home is heavily contaminated with particles such as pollen, food, dust mites, bacteria, and dead skin cells.

All these pollutants get trapped around the home in items such as fabrics, linen, and carpets and can cause serious health problems, especially to children, the elderly and those already at risk of respiratory conditions. These particles float around the air in your home and seriously aggravate allergies, irritate your throat, eyes, and nose, as well as weaken your immune system leading to further cold and cases of flu while leaving you feeling lethargic.

Whether you’re a stay at home mom, or you work in an office, chances are you spend more than 90% of your time indoors. That’s a huge amount of time to be shut inside even the most comfortable of spaces! So how can a carpet help? Well, it stands to reason that most particles end up on the floor, those that do not will find a home on a shelf or ledge of some kind. A clean and well-maintained carpet can actually trap allergens and particles in its fibers to prevent them from escaping into the air and being inhaled. Carpets act as air filters to trap dust, pollen, and potentially dangerous particles to improve indoor air quality and overall breathing.

There are significant health benefits to maintaining clean carpets, especially in homes with young children as they are deemed as being the most at risk. This is because young children spend a lot of time close to the floor and because their immune system is not as robust as that of an adult. Respiratory complications, like asthma, can be triggered by poor indoor air quality, which is why most homeowners notice improved health following a thorough cleaning of their carpet.

What are the benefits of having a clean carpet in your home?
Carpets are big business nowadays. They are the most popular kind of house flooring. Given their softness & warmth, they add a sense of luxury and comfort that hard floor surfaces simply cannot offer. As previously mentioned, carpets act as filters within the home but they can also act as a placemat for food crumbs and spilled drinks. They collect dirt, debris, and bacteria from daily life. All sounds great, right? Sure but like all filters, it would need emptying at some stage right?

A clean carpet is the foundation of a cozy, comfortable home. However, a badly kept carpet can be the cause of untold health issues. Regular carpet cleaning, aside from improving the appearance of your home and extending the life of your carpets & rugs, as you can probably tell it has numerous health benefits, which included:

Helping prevent unhealthy mold growths
The risk of mold and other unhealthy growths developing in dirty carpets is greatly increased in areas of high humidity where the carpet is exposed to moisture. Areas around large pieces of furniture where airflow is reduced can also provide a perfect environment. When it’s raining moisture can track indoors, this moisture sinks into carpets where it promotes mildew and mold growth. Studies have shown that mold is actually more harmful than smoking cigarettes as it produces spores on the lungs leading to serious health and respiratory diseases

Preventing dust mites
Dust mites are microscopic. They share our homes and most of us are probably not even aware of their existence. With this in mind, when an infestation occurs, most of us are probably not even aware of its happening. It’s the feces of dust mites left behind which cause allergic reactions. The microscopic particles are easily inhaled when an infested area is disturbed. Sounds disgusting right? Well, consider this. To put this problem into perspective, about half a teaspoon of dust may contain up to 20,000 dust mites. Then consider how big your carpet space is, even in the smallest room in your home.

Promoting good air quality
When you vacuum your carpet it removes dirty elements from the carpet surface. Some vacuum cleaners may suggest a deep clean but most will ultimately clean the surface layer of the carpet pile. Without getting deep into the pile, these contaminants are left to penetrate deep into the carpet. Deep cleaning your carpets is probably not something you would immediately associate with improved indoor air quality but it does have a very positive effect. Dust and allergens accumulated by not deep cleaning the carpet can circulate in the air when disturbed and can affect the health of asthma patients and ultimately, anyone in the room.

Elimination of Harmful Pollutants
As we have mentioned, carpets retain sources of indoor pollutants. Apart from everyday dust and dirt, carpets contain pollutants, allergens, and pet dander. Toxic airborne gasses adhere to the particulate matter and become trapped in the carpet. When we vacuum or disturb the carpet, these toxic gasses are released into the air, starting the cycle all over again. Using state of the art equipment, here at Breeze we use high-powered vacuuming techniques to remove these deeply trapped pollutants.

How to keep a Healthy Home
Normal vacuuming is rarely enough as it only removes loose dirt from the top layer of your carpets, to obtain the health benefits from having a carpet you should both vacuum and have your carpets deep cleaned and treated by a professional cleaner such as Breeze. Why not contact us today and see how we can improve the internal environment of your home by providing a deep clean on your carpets.

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Cleaning if you have pets

It can be really difficult to keep your home, particularly your carpets, in a good condition when you have numerous four legged friends for company. A dog may well be a man's best friend but it certainly isn't as close to your furnishings. Even the most lovable and friendly pets can wreak havoc throughout your house, especially to your carpets and upholstery.

Of course, it's not your pet's fault that they play in the mud and shed hair, it's what comes natural to them. However, it is essential that you know how to protect your furnishing from the odours, fur, fleas and dirt that come along with your pet. Frequent steam cleaning can help keep your home fresh and hygienic without causing any harm to your animals.

Taking care of a young puppy or kitten is a huge responsibility; some say it's even tougher than a baby. One of the biggest achievements for any young domestic pet and their owner is toilet training, but until that time you will have to live with the accidents. You will probably find that your pet urinates in the same area each time and so it is important that this area receives the correct treatment. By obtaining professional steam cleaning you will be able to completely remove the urine from the carpet fibres and backing - something which supermarket stain removal products are unable to do.

Another major pet problem is the little friends that they bring into your home, fleas. Once fleas get into the house it can be a complete nightmare trying to remove them. Fleas are generally a major problem for carpets when they are at the larval stage. If you suspect that your pet has fleas you will need to take them to the vet and contact your local carpet cleaners for a thorough steam clean.

By cleaning the carpets on a regular basis you can avoid any long term problems and ensure that your home is always a clean and healthy environment for you and your family to live in. Your carpet cleaner should be able to let you know how often you should get your carpets cleaned, but 1-2 times per year is probably enough.

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The germs on your sofa

A family sofa harbours more nasty bacteria than the average lavatory seat, a new study has found..

Other germ-ridden household items include fridge handles, toys, game consoles and garden play equipment like trampolines..

While a third of people think the bathroom is the dirtiest room in the house, microbiologists found the average games controller has a bacterial count of 7,863 per 15 square inches, which is nearly five times that of the typical toilet.

Fridge handles were found to be more than four times as dirty 

but not so bad as the sofa arms, which were found to be a staggering 12 times more contaminated.

The grubbiest items were all in the garden, with children’s play equipment such as trampolines, bikes and balls having particularly high ­levels of bacteria..

Hand washing is probably the most cost-effective and simple way to reduce disease, whether in the UK or in the rest of the world
Three out of five people believe children come into contact with the most germs when at nursery or school, says the research by Unicef and Domestos.

A fifth of those also thought a child’s favourite toy would be one of the most germ-ridden objects in the family home. But teddies and similar toys are cleaned regularly with 29 per cent of parents putting them in a washing machine weekly.

“Our safety, and that of others, is literally in our hands. By making sure we have clean hands, we prevent passing our germs on to others.”

© The Carpet Cleaning Network. 101W Sterling House, Langston Road, Loughton, Essex, IG103TS. Tel: 0330 058 1978.