Drying your laundry indoors can increase humidity by over 30%. Asthma attacks would then be more frequent.
Summer is coming, the heat and the sun too. The season for household complications is drawing away: it is much easier to dry your laundry. We must not therefore deprive ourselves of doing it outside.
The advice is mainly aimed at asthmatics. The Irish Asthma Society warns of the risks that a simple clothes line in a bedroom or living room can represent. By drying your laundry indoors, the humidity in the room can increase by more than 30%.
Indoor spores
And humidity is the enemy of asthmatics. “Humid environments stimulate the growth of molds, which release their spores into the atmosphere,” explains Pheena Kenny, health advisor at the Irish Asthma Society. They can cause allergic reactions in some people, and are often invisible to the naked eye. “
In people without allergies, these spores are rejected by the respiratory system during a small cough, or a sneeze, or even without visible signs. “But for asthmatics sensitive to spores, they can trigger or worsen the symptoms of an attack,” continues Kenny.
Young children, the elderly, immunocompromised or suffering from eczema are more particularly at risk.
Open windows
For asthmatics like the others, it is therefore better to dry your clothes outside. Easy to say for people living in houses, or those with a large balcony or a tumble dryer. But the others, who live in a small apartment, will be able to open the windows as soon as the weather permits. And in this sunny month of June, it is!
Irish doctors, who specialize in humidity if there are any, also advise you to wait before putting your laundry in the cupboard. If it is not completely dry and brings moisture back to it, it will become a reservoir for mold. By not folding too tightly and piling the clothes together, the humidity will also be lower.
Watch out for plants
More generally, to limit humidity, homes must be well ventilated. Window opening should therefore not be limited to laundry days: at least 15 minutes, morning and evening if possible. Excess plants are not recommended, as is too much heating in winter, which promotes mold growth. The ideal temperature is between 18 and 20 degrees.
If traces of mold should still appear on hard surfaces, cleaning does not require special products, just a little soap and white vinegar.
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