By Eric Czarnik
C & G Staff Writer

If you’ve been feeling under the weather while under your roof, it might be time to give your home a checkup for bad indoor air quality.

Flu-like symptoms that arise when hanging around the house could be a warning sign that something is wrong, said Connie Morbach, founder of Sanit-Air in Troy.

“When we live in chemical soups and sometimes mold soups, those things sometimes affect us,” she said. “I get those calls every day — ‘My kids have running noses’; ‘We get headaches.’”

Morbach said those symptoms can be triggered by environmental contamination that can include dust, mold and even chemicals from furniture. She added that energy-conserving insulation sometimes traps in these irritants.

“We make houses tighter than we used to,” she said. “It’s like we’re living in Ziploc bags.”

It is hard to determine whether indoor allergens like dust and pet dander are more serious than outdoor ones, said Dr. Carol DeVore, an allergist who practices in Beverly Hills.

“However, indoor allergies and air quality are so important to consider because we can control or modify our indoor environment to some degree, and therefore we can have some positive impact on our respiratory health,” she said.

M.J. Palazzolo, operations manager of Safety King in Utica, has heard lots of horror stories about things his company has found in air ducts: dust, mold, dirt, dead bugs, hair, dead skin cells and even a clarinet. “At their worst, some of them can impede the actual air flow,” he said.

Homeowners should keep an eye out for excessive dust as the seasons change, said Keith Meadows, president and CEO of American Power Vac. While moisture tends to keep dust and debris from escaping during the summer, the dry furnace heat blasts out dust into the air when the heat is turned on, he said.

This is especially true of homes that are 10 years old and older, he explained. “In the ductwork, what they have is just an excessive amount of vacuum bag-type material,” he said. “That’s what’s causing the dust when the system turns on, and the heat from the furnace draws that out.”

Changing furnace filters on a regular basis can prevent this, he said. But, he said, air purifiers are usually a waste of time. “I got to say, that’s putting a Band-Aid on the problem,” he said.

Many air quality fixes are “quite easy,” Morbach said. For instance, she said her company follows EPA guidelines for mold remediation. Basement checks can test for temperature and humidity, which should stay under 60 percent to guarantee healthy air, she said.

For people with strong allergies or asthma, a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) bypass system can produce hospital-quality air, she added. However, her company does not do this service, and the upgrade can cost about $4,000, she said.

To reach American Power Vac, call (248) 656-0600. For more information on Sanit-Air, call (248) 616-0477. Safety King Inc. can be contacted at (586) 731-4720. Dr. Carol Devore’s office can be reached at (248) 594-1400.

You can reach Staff Writer Eric Czarnik at eczarnik@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1058.