75: How Air Quality Affects Your Sleep

Narrator 00:04

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the Healthy Home Hacks podcast where we firmly believe in joining optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. Listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres

Ron Beres 00:50

Hello, friends and welcome to today's show. If you're having trouble sleeping, you're in the right place. Today, about 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep or wakefulness disorders and are associated with a growing number of health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers. You've probably tried everything from reducing the lighting, adjusting the thermostat to incorporating white noise machines, or maybe even trying aromatherapy diffusers in a desperate attempt to assure yourself of some well needed quality z's.

Lisa Beres 01:29

But before you run out to buy a new mattress, or invest in blackout curtains, new linens or even a new pillow, ask yourself if the solution to your sleep woes is something much bigger. You may not be aware of an invisible culprit that could be greatly impacting your sleep quality and comfort. This hidden hazard in your home is silent. And it's linked to a number of health problems including respiratory issues and allergies, which can cause discomfort and make it difficult to fall or even stay asleep.

Ron Beres 02:03

What is it? Indoor air quality or IQ. indoor air pollution levels today in homes are two to five times higher, up to 100 times worse than outdoor air pollution on average. Someone who's with us today to shed light on this extremely important topic. Is air quality nerd, wife, mom, tree hugger, sports enthusiast and leader at IQAir North America.

Lisa Beres 02:31

Yeah, Glory Dolphin Hammes, is an expert in environmental control, a certified indoor environmentalist and a licensed HVAC contractor. Glory began her tenure with IQAir as one of the youngest CEOs in America, she oversaw the launches of IQAir�s health Pro Series, and the air visual platform allowing air quality data to be shared around the world. Her inspiration and passion for clean air for all led to the IQAir Foundation, a nonprofit focused on providing clean air for kids, focusing on air quality, filtration, technology, and monitoring and schools located in the most polluted communities in the US.

Ron Beres 03:15

Glory is our neighbor here in Southern California and lizard their husband Frank and their two boys. Welcome to the show, Glory!

Glory Dolphin Hammes 03:27

Thank you. Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Ron Beres 03:30

Indoor Air queen. Yes, she's here.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 03:32

Yeah, air quality nerd.

Lisa Beres 03:35

I saw that on mine. I'm like, I'm gonna steal that. A very cute nerd. Well, Glory. Welcome. We are so thrilled to have you with us today. This is going to be such a fantastic show. We are huge fans of IQAir and all of the work and all the solutions that you guys offer. So, thank you again for being with us.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 03:53

Oh, thank you. And I'm also a huge fan of your show. And I've been following you guys for years.

Lisa Beres 03:58

Awesome. Well, kindred spirits indeed.

Ron Beres 04:01

Let's get right to it. I know our listeners are chomping at the bit. We know how important sleep is when it comes to our attention, learning and memory and physical health. So how does air quality impact our sleep?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 04:11

So, air quality impacts our sleep in so many different ways, it's actually comes down to good air quality is the essence truly of good sleep. So, air quality, we're talking about temperature, we're talking about also the cleanliness of the air, but it really begins with something that a lot of us don't really know about, which is our air pollution. So, the quality of our air dramatically affects our sleep. It not only affects our ability to get to sleep, but it also affects our ability to stay asleep.

Lisa Beres 04:52

Yeah, that's such a huge problem today. People they fall asleep and then they wake up and then they can't get back to sleep insomnia. It's an epidemic, right? The sleep issues that people deal with today it's out of control, right? And people just aren't really paying attention to their environment per se, especially what they can't see, they might look at their bedding, like I mentioned at the top, but they're not really looking at this invisible thing all around us called indoor air quality, right? What are some simple steps our listeners can take at home right now to improve their air and their sleep quality?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 05:24

Well, first of all, you really need to control the temperature, we sleep at a much higher temperature sometimes than actually we should. So, it's better to really make sure that our air is as cooled down as it should be, in order to keep us asleep. Some of the times we also look at our bedding, but there's also air quality that affects our bedding in terms of dust mites, and dust mite allergens as well. So, we actually do not change out our bedding as often as we need to. Yes, we also don't even wash our bedding, believe it or not.

Lisa Beres 06:05

I believe in it.

Ron Beres 06:07

Why are you asking or saying that Glory?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 06:11

I'm not trying to name names or anything but no, yes, no, no,

Lisa Beres 06:15

No, it's true glory. It's something that I feel like you've been in your industry for such a long time. We've been in our industry for a long time and you just sometimes you feel like a broken record. Repeating the same information like change that bedding change those mattresses, change your pillows every two year. Yeah, pillows every two years and simple things that you can do that we've taught our community is putting your pillow in the dryer to kill decimates, right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, if you can't get a new pillow, it's not in the budget or you're not even quite ready. And one of my little tips that I love is I would never run and I travel I take an organic baby pillow with me. It's just a baby pillow so it's made for babies but it makes it perfect travel size.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 06:55

Oh absolutely.

Lisa Beres 06:56

Yeah, I take it in my carry on and then I use it in the hotel instead of the hotel pillows because as we know they are

Glory Dolphin Hammes 07:03

disgusting. Because just as an air quality expert I know you and Ron both know Lisa, but as an air quality expert, it is just unfathomable. Just to think about all of the achiness involved in the hotel pillow.

Lisa Beres 07:22

Yeah, I think it was University of Manchester who did a study and found the average pillow had four different species, four different fungi. 16 different species of fungi in the average pillow. Oh, yeah. Now imagine a hotel where someone new is sleeping on it every night. And yeah, they change the pillow case, right. But obviously we know saliva and droll, and germs and viruses and always want to kind of trade through that fabric. So, I don't mean to gross everybody out. But like your pillows really important. Yeah, I'm glad we're touching on that. Yeah. And you mentioned keeping the air cool. And I completely agree with that. Do you have a magic number for the temperature we're living in?

Ron Beres 08:02

That's what I want to jump in? That's the tough question. Because I know, energy conservation. Right? We're all into that too, right. But we're also into the health of our home and how we can live optimum lives. It needs to be cold at night. And I know that live in a California, there's some rules that say: Don't lower your AC to a certain amount. Yeah, we're putting on the hot seat glory. What temperature? Should it be at night for the bedroom?

Lisa Beres 08:24

Yeah.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 08:24

Well, I have to say, as an HVAC contractor, I keep my air relatively warmer, especially during the summertime. So, I'm not one of those ice box kinds of folks. I know that there's those ice box kinds of folks out there that just when you walk into your home, it feels absolutely. Like you're in the icebox. That's not me at all, because I spent a lot of time over the years in Europe where there's not even air conditioning. Yeah. So, we tend to cool just to the level that makes us comfortable. So, in my home, actually, when it's 90 degrees outside in my home, I'll have it set at about 75 degrees. Okay. Okay, so I definitely do not over cool and I don't like to have cold, cold air. And when I'm sleeping during the winter time, it's actually we need to heat in California during the wintertime, especially this year. We're in an El Nino year. So, we really do need to heat during this time, but I heat actually our air to 68 degrees. So, I'm one of those energy conservationists, I don't overheat. And I definitely don't over cool. So, you'll see when it's really hot out there. My home, it'll just be at 75. But one trick that we actually do is we do what's called an air exchanger. So, we actually end the evening. Of course, being an air quality nerd. We're going to install an automated damper when the air reaches a certain temperature and when it's actually cooler than my thermostat it switches so that it's actually just taking an outside air. And it's filtering the outside air that's taken in. So, I get really HEPA quality. We call it Hyper HEPA IQAir, but I get really high-quality air. That's not even a cooled through my actual air conditioning system. But just with a special damper that we put together.

Lisa Beres 09:43

Is that an IQAir product?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 10:18

We actually do this installation. So, it's more of like a customized, I think sort of bespoke IQAir installation you can have when you have one of our whole house systems.

Lisa Beres 10:35

Oh, is it like an energy recovery ventilator?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 10:38

It's actually a little bit better than an energy recovery ventilator because we're not recovering the energy. What we're doing is we're taking just an outside air damper, and it's essentially 100% ventilation air. Okay, so it's not even going through a system because we've determined through the thermostat that the air temperature is actually colder outside than it is indoors. So, we're not even recovering the energy and sending the hot air outside. It's just an exchange a ventilation exchange.

Lisa Beres 11:14

Nice. Okay, that's great. Mm hmm. And then the whole house filtration would actually filter that air on top of exactly. Okay, so you'd want both because IQAir for listeners who aren't familiar, I'd be shocked because we've blogged about you guys. We've done giveaways, like if you don't know IQAir like, smack. Start reading those articles. Well, and honestly, I mean, Ron, and I have tested your units. You guys have sent us a laser or particle counter. Oh, yeah. These are air particle counters.

Ron Beres 11:47

I love that. Do you still do that Glory?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 11:49

Yeah, we do. We count every single particle.

Lisa Beres 11:53

They are particle people.

Ron Beres 11:55

It is amazing. We took that test. I mean, there was zero dust around that unit, it was cranking and that was not true of the other units that we actually tested the same time with your laser air particle counter.

Lisa Beres 12:05

Yeah, exactly.

Ron Beres 12:06

Oh, my God, it was so impressive. It just sucks everything that's bad out of the air right into the unit.

Lisa Beres 12:12

Well, let's talk about that, since we're on this topic, because the particles that are most HEPA filters aren't filtered down to point three microns or larger. But you guys have something called a hyper HEPA filter. And can you explain to our listeners what that is and why it's so important.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 12:28

Our hyper HEPA filtration really allows the filtration of ultrafine particles. So ultra fine particles are truly the nasty stuff that you really want to pay attention to. Because ultrafine particles are less than 0.1 microns. And those are the size particles that can penetrate the human cell, cause cancer cause hypertension, and a whole lot of other health effects. And it's just because they're so small and tiny, that they're able to penetrate the human body more than any other size particle. And that's really what hyper HEPA is about. It really focuses on the ultrafine particles, and it filters them out at a rate of 99.5%.

Lisa Beres 13:17

Wow, that's incredible. Because you know, everybody listening has heard of a HEPA, HEPA or medical Grade HEPA, but you guys have taken it literally to the next level. And what is the percentage of particulates that are actually that size? It's the majority, right? Yeah, the 0,03 down to that level is the majority of particulates that were exposed to crack.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 13:38

Absolutely. So, 0.3 is just really the tip of the iceberg. But when it comes to the total quantity, the total amount of particles, we're going to have over 90% of all of the particles that are suspended and floating in the air will be in the ultrafine rage, they're going to be less than 0.1 microns. And that's what a lot of folks don't know about.

Lisa Beres 14:05

Yeah, now let's paint a picture. Okay, a single strand of hair is about a micron. Is that correct? Like if we were to measure it, so people can understand what we're talking about?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 14:15

A single strand of hair is a little bit more. Okay. I think it's somewhere between depending 10 or 20 microns inside.

Lisa Beres 14:25

Okay, so a hair would be 10 or 20. Yes. And traditional HEPA is filtering down to 0,3 Yeah, so 0,3, and then the hyper HEPA is 0,003.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 14:35

Absolutely.

Lisa Beres 14:35

Okay. I want to paint that picture. Because I'm sure people are like, what are they talking about? What's a micron? Why do I care? I just want the mold, dust out of my hair. Right, right.

Ron Beres 14:44

Very small level.

Lisa Beres 14:45

Yeah. And I love that you guys do that. And I love that you're going the extra mile because you talked about how these particulates can penetrate our cells, but they also can lodge deep into our lungs, correct?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 14:56

That's correct when you're talking about fine particles. So There's coarse particles, there's three different sizes of particles, we've got coarse particles, and coarse particles are like pollen size that will drop out of the air, or they'll stop basically, at our nose and at our throat, right, then you have fine particles, fine particles are going to get stopped at our lungs, and it's really sad or lungs are actually the filter for fine particle. And then you've got ultra fine particle that go beyond our nose and throat beyond our lungs, and can penetrate any single cell in the human body. And that's what ultra fine particles are.

Lisa Beres 15:36

And Glory what would be something that we would recognize in that rent like smog, smoke, or are we talking?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 15:43

You're talking about combustion?

Lisa Beres 15:44

Yeah. More in the gas.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 15:46

Combustion particles, but also the most common form of ultra fine particle of virus that we know about today? Right?

Lisa Beres 15:54

Okay. Okay, viruses. So that's really important. Everybody's wanting to have the healthiest home, you know, since COVID. And if they weren't considering that, then they are now and realizing the importance of keeping their air really clean.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 16:08

Absolutely.

Ron Beres 16:09

It does sound like you're doing a lot already. Is there anything we missed on how IQR was working to solve the problem of air pollution? Both indoor? We kind of talked about that. And outdoor?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 16:18

Yeah, well, one thing we're doing, and I don't know if you guys are aware or have our app. It's called Air Visual, air visual. But the Air Visual app has about 35 million users globally. And what it does is give you your local station, and it gives you what's called your hyperlocal data.

Lisa Beres 16:42

Nice. Yeah. So, it's like a community kind of creating this data. Right,

Glory Dolphin Hammes 16:47

Exactly.

Ron Beres 16:48

You create this community?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 16:49

We actually acquired AirVisual. And then we just built upon it. And we got more and more users on board and more people crowdsourcing and sharing their data.

Ron Beres 17:00

Oh, that's incredible.

Lisa Beres 17:01

That's so great. Yeah. So important.

Ron Beres 17:04

We'll have that in the show notes for the listeners, so they can jump in and participate in that. Yeah,

Lisa Beres 17:08

I'll definitely put that in there. And then the Health Pro Series, which is your main series of air purifiers, you guys offered the large unit which filter is what is the square footage? Over 1000 square feet to 915?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 17:21

Oh, 1150 square feet?

Lisa Beres 17:24

1150 for the large and then you have a compact version? Yes. Which is what? It's about 1100 square feet. For the little one.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 17:33

Oh, which little one?

Lisa Beres 17:34

The compact.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 17:35

Okay, our compact. The only difference between our HealthPro Plus and our HealthPro Compact is gas phase filtration, essentially.

Lisa Beres 17:43

Okay, yeah, And that's important because, like we talked about, if you have an air purifier that's not handling that very well, you've got maybe you live near a freeway, maybe you are on a golf course and they're spraying pesticides, maybe you just are getting the outdoor air pollution from like, we talked about freeway exhaust and combustion and that kind of thing. You definitely want to be addressing the gases as well as these allergens that we're talking about what the hyper HEPA, the hyper HEPA with the particulates and of course, the big particles that we know, like the mold and the pollen and a lot of the allergens. So, a lot of people get really confused Glory on. Oh, there's so many air purifiers out there. What's the difference? Why is this one so much more expensive than this one that I can get for $99? You know, and I always tell people, when it comes to air purifiers, at least in my experience, you get what you pay for, because you're actually paying for the technology. I mean, that's not true. And everything in life, maybe a handbag, designer handbag, it's just the name, but the handbag might be similar. But with an air purifier, you're really actually getting what you pay for So sure, a $99 air purifier is better than nothing. But if you can afford it, I say go for the best that you can get. Sure. Do you agree?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 18:54

Oh, wholeheartedly, Lisa. And the other difference is today we think about consumables a little bit differently. So, we got to really think about our environmental impact. There are so many things that we buy and air purifiers are included in what we actually buy that are actually kind of throw away items. Sometimes we go on Amazon or we go on the internet and we try to find a really good air purifier. And it might work for a month and then we find out that that air purifier we bought just turned into basically a fan and it's just blowing a bunch of definitely and then you gotta throw it away or you got to find the filter. You can't find the filter, you know, Yeah, who knows what's all happening so you kind of get what you pay for. Especially in terms of IQAir, because we are Swiss made products. We're literally our products are made in Switzerland.

Ron Beres 19:50

Sprichst du Deutsch?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 19:52

Yeah!

Ron Beres 19:53

Wunderbar. Oh, is that good? Yeah.

Lisa Beres 19:57

Yeah, this conversation is not going to go very well.

Ron Beres 20:00

And I can only go for 100 words.

Lisa Beres 20:03

Not from you Glory from Ron.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:05

Wie geht es dir?

Ron Beres 20:06

Ich gehr exzellent. Are you asking? I was doing right. Yeah.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:12

Okay, I'm impressed.

Ron Beres 20:16

My wife is not but I'm glad you're impressed. Glory, that's great.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:20

There's not a lot of folks that actually speak German. And that's really impressive.

Lisa Beres 20:25

I think you heard it all. Is that the I think you heard the extent.

Ron Beres 20:31

No, I have a few more words. I'm saying that

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:33

The conversation was excellent, though. Oh, yeah.

Ron Beres 20:36

Well, thank you, Glory. Appreciate that. See? Thanks for telling my wife that she knows she knows. Right?

Lisa Beres 20:42

Well, yeah, I mean, you guys are definitely Swiss me. You have distribution center, obviously here in Southern California. Other areas. But yeah, the Swiss made quality. How long? Does IQAir been in business over 60 years?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:53

Yeah over 60 years?

Lisa Beres 20:56

So incredible.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:57

Yes. We're second generation, air quality company, second generation. So, there's so much that we know really about air quality. And hopefully we'll be very soon a third-generation air quality company.

Lisa Beres 21:11

Yeah. Nice. Is that your children?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 21:14

Yes, we've got two boys. But also, at the same time, my husband's brother, my in law also have two boys the same exact age. So, both of our boys are 13 and 16. Both of them.

Ron Beres 21:30

Oh, how fun.

Lisa Beres 21:31

That is sweet. Your story. And I know we've kind of breezed over it. But I'm so impressed with how you became the CEO of IQAir and that you were one of the youngest entrepreneurs and that you launched this health pro series. It's really impressive. I mean, anyone who's familiar with the brand, you know, just knowing that not only were you were female in this industry, you know, at a time probably when you didn't see as many female CEOs and just you know, such a whippersnapper.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 21:56

Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa Beres 21:57

It's really impressive. Yeah. Thank you, though. Kudos to you. You know, let's give a shout out to some of the other catalog of air purification solutions. So, we talked about the Health Pro Series, which includes, you know, your large unit and they have a compact unit, right, and then you have the multi gas, and then you have the Atem. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is? And what that does?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 22:18

Sure. It is essentially a five in one air purifier series where it's a personal air purifier, you can travel with it to those hotels, it's a car air purifier. So, there's essentially five uses that you can have for this personal air purifier. And it does a space that 300 square feet or smaller. And really when it comes to small spaces, it's your system for small spaces.

Lisa Beres 22:47

It is we have one I'm looking at it right behind me in my office. Yes, the white one. I love it. And it's really great, like Glory said, because I can have it here in my office. And now Ron and I are going to go on a road trip. And you guys actually sell a converter kit. I don't know if that's the correct term, where you can strap it to the back of the seat. And actually, now this has become a current air purifier.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 23:10

Absolutely.

Lisa Beres 23:12

Yeah, really important for everybody, but especially the community of chemically sensitive people. We have a lot of chemically sensitive people that they can't travel because of that. Yeah. So, you can take this in the car, your kids are going to be healthy, your pets are going to be healthy. Then you get to the hotel, boom, you put it in your room, hotel air is really difficult for me. Oh, I do not do well in hotels because of the air. It's either too hot or too cold or too loud. Or you know, it's hard.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 23:37

Don't think about the pillows either.

Lisa Beres 23:42

And then, actually, if you have an RV, you could put this air purifier in your RV. It's perfect for your desk, right or a small room, babies� room. Nursery air purifier. Yeah. So, I love it. I wanted to give a shout out to that because I think I know it's one of your newest in the line. And it's so great.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 23:59

Thank you, Lisa. I love it too. And boy, we see it a lot on folks� desk. So even folks in yeah, cubicles Really, really truly like to have it so that they can breed the cleanest air there.

Lisa Beres 24:12

Yeah. And now we've got everybody working from home. Oh, yeah, we need to make sure that our home offices are healthy too. Because we're spending, I think a study was 87% of people are spending time indoors and then another what is it 6% in their car is 87% of people spend which were so car for sure. I think there was a day and buildings another 6% in their vehicles.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 24:33

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Lisa Beres 24:35

Yeah, we're just 90 I think it's overall on average, like 90% of our time indoors,

Ron Beres 24:39

Which is crazy. No one typically thinks about the indoor air quality of their home to like it's too late. I remember a few years ago in California, all the fires, right like Oh, so now it's important. Let's get a portable air up here. I'm sure that was blockbuster for you was at the time of this recording. It's middle of February and unfortunately, we've had some accidents in places like Ohio some of these chemical spills. Oh yeah. So, I would imagine your phones are probably off the hook, with people having questions about what can I do to protect my indoor air quality? And do you have any comments about that? And not to put you on the spot, but it certainly is timely?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 25:11

No, I definitely do have comments about that, because I've been a part of an air quality workgroup. And I was just so surprised that after that spill, that one of the first things within a couple of hours or so, that was said that the air quality is safe. So, I'm really as an air quality expert, I want to know, how was that actually determined?

Lisa Beres 25:36

Yeah, right.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 25:37

Because I know as an air quality expert, basically find what you're looking for, in terms of testing. So, I'm really not sure about the testing that was done so quickly, that was able to be determined, right. The good thing about it is that as time goes on, the what's called prevailing winds, actually does allow for dilution of air quality chemicals that really are the center of around this toxic pollution that's talked about. So, dilution and prevailing winds over time will distribute, and hopefully get the air quality down to where it needs to be. But the longer that this many, many hours that you have, after that particular incident took place, the more dilution you can expect. So that's the good thing.

Ron Beres 26:27

I know, there were concerns there's this dark cloud of gases from this bill, right?

Lisa Beres 26:30

Yeah, that's moving to New York.

Ron Beres 26:32

Yeah. To the New York area. It's obviously diluting itself, one of the cells, that's crazy.

Lisa Beres 26:37

Yeah, there's been four, there's been like four hazardous material spills on trains, I think just in the last couple weeks, there's been Michigan, Ohio, right? What else I'm forgetting anyway. But you know, like, we always say, we can't control the outside world, but we can definitely control our homes. And we can create a safe sanctuary, right. And that's really also what Ron and I teach, like, you know, I can't control the hotel room completely. But I can control my bedroom completely, and our bedroom and our home and making sure that we're doing all we can do to eliminate toxins to eliminate biological hazards and materials, as well as chemical. And you know, just being smart and being savvy and being aware of what you bring into your home. Because we are bringing in products that off gas VOCs on a daily basis. And if you don't have a good air purification system, those were those VOCs and those things going to go, you're going to inhale them, right,

Glory Dolphin Hammes 27:29

Absolutely. And that's really what it comes down to. And that's kind of the basis around IQAir. And what we really, truly believe in is that we want people to reduce their exposure, and how do we do that? We help them by letting them know what the outside air actually is, and giving them tools so that they can just as you described, Lisa, really take control over their home and make their home really, truly a sanctuary. That's absolutely we're synergizing here.

Lisa Beres 28:00

Yeah, it's interesting. Like, it should be a law that when you get a new house, you should have to have an air purifier, and oh, like we wouldn't not put a dishwasher in right or a sink. Why don't we just make that a standard? Absolutely. So, we talked about the dangers of dust on this podcast in the past, including for listeners who might have missed this, there was a first of its kind study where they found they took dust samples. And it was Harvard and University of San Francisco and NRDC came together and they found 45 chemicals present in dust, including one that caused cancer. And they found that the average dust sample that they collected from just houses contain 10 chemicals. And these were comprised of four classes. So, they have flame retardants, phenols, PFASs, and plasticizers. So, dust is not just annoying, keeping your home tidy and clean and dust free is actually a very, very healthy thing to do. So, glory when it comes to sleeping, and these dust mites, they like these warm, dark environments. What are they? And how can they impact our health?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 29:02

Well, they can be all over our bedding and all over our pillows, as we know, and there are ways that we can actually get rid of them. And that's through this heating process that you talked about. But you can't do that to your mattress. It's really big. There's a logistical problem basically, in trying to do so. What can you do? You can do sometimes encapsulation. Do you talk about that sometimes Lisa about encapsulating?

Lisa Beres 29:31

Oh, are you talking about a desperate Yes, like a bear? Yes, yes, for sure.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 29:34

Okay, so that's definitely one thing that needs to be done. You can also change your bedding. Also, regularly, your pillows, there's really maintenance that needs to go on with your pillows. You've got to change out your pillows also regularly and like what you said if you can't afford to change out your pillows, and what you can do is put it in the dryer for a certain amount of time as well. But these dust mites it's Not necessarily the dust mites causing as much of the problem as the let me just say it the dust mite droppings.

Lisa Beres 30:09

Yeah.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 30:10

The dust mite dropping, that are truly the allergens or the death night, not the allergen, but the dust mite droppings are immediately what's causing and triggering the immune system for folks that have a dust mite allergy. And these are smaller than the dust mites, of course, and can become airborne and get you all sneezy and messed up in the worst way.

Lisa Beres 30:44

Yeah. So, would you say the bedroom if you had an air purifier, and you have a family's? We have a two-story house? Where would you put that air purifier? Where would you suggest?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 30:55

Always in the room that you spend the most amount of time. So, you always want to make sure that you and the people that you really care the most about are breathing the cleanest air so it needs to be near you guys.

Lisa Beres 31:08

Okay. All right, perfect. So that might be the family room, or it might be the bedroom, but then everyone has to fight over that. So, I guess get a couple.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 31:19

Definitely get a full house system as well.

Lisa Beres 31:22

Yeah. Okay. Does IQAir I know you have a whole house air filtration is that we do consumers or is that commercial? Only?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 31:29

We have one for consumers as well as commercially. So, we do it all?

Lisa Beres 31:34

You know. Okay, excellent.

Ron Beres 31:35

Yeah, probably a good segue. We talked about the Atem, Atem X, for example. We talked a little bit about it. But is there anything that we missed? What is different about this item and makes it the best option for improving sleep quality?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 31:46

Okay, well, it has the highest CIDR it also is Energy Star rated. And it's quiet. So, the difference what most folks might know, you might know IQAir and you'll know the health pro Plus, but the Atem it's pretty much so quieter. It's almost twice as quiet as our health pro series.

Lisa Beres 32:09

Huh? That's perfect for the bedroom. Yeah, most people sleep better with a little soft white noise. I know I do. Right? Because it�s kind of tunes out the outside noise. So, if you like a lot of white noise, and you like it louder. The health Pro Plus series is great for you. Otherwise, is it Atem? I think we were calling it Atem, is it [autumn]?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 32:29

Technically it is Atem. But a lot of people do say a dome. But it's a German word.

Lisa Beres 32:42

I love that. That's so great. I was a perfect name and Glory; can you please leave our listeners with the importance of changing their filters because this is a problem. A lot of people like you talked about, they get the air purifier. They're all gung ho. They use it, they love it, they're feeling better. And maybe they change at once. And then they get lazy or they forget. And that thing's just sitting there like worse off than it started because it's so cluttered with dust and dirt and debris.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 33:09

Right. If you have really one of this kind of typical consumer less expensive $50 or $90, air purifier, it's actually going to stop working as an air purifier after about a month. So, you're not even purifying anything, what it's doing. After that time, it's essentially just turning over the dust and becoming a fan actually, instead of an air purifier. So, when it comes to IQAir, we have really long intervals in which you've got to change your filters, it could be a year, it could be 18 months to when you need to change your filters. But you have to change your filters. If you have an IQAir unit, not because it's turned into a fan. But because the filters are holding so much dust that you're actually going to strain your fan after a certain point in time. So that's really the difference and talk about quality. And the difference is that your IQAir filter has collected so much dust that if you don't change it, you're straining your fan.

Lisa Beres 34:15

Yeah, it's kind of like your HVAC, you know, we're big on and even the EPA says change your H back filter every season every three months. And so many people when Ron and I used to inspect homes, we would first check their HVAC filter and oh my gosh, that does. Like, there like what is that? I know I have a filter there. Oh, that's what that grill is for all the time. And you're like, Wait, you're paying a lot and your electric bill is that thing is having to work so hard just to pump air through that and now you're filtering dirty air through your house. So, filter filter filter, it's like anything. It's like you wouldn't miss your oil change in your car, right? You wouldn't think twice about not getting your oil change everything in your home whether it's your water fill Your or your air filter or anything like that, right? The refrigerator filter is another big one. Ron, remember, we used to see people like taking water out of their fridge and we're like, Oh, is that filter? Oh, yeah, there's a filter in there. And it's Oh, yeah. Oh, no, yeah. Oh, no, no, they wouldn't even know there's a filter. They'd say, oh, it's filtered because it comes from the refrigerator. And we're like, did you change the filter? What filter?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 35:21

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I actually our whole house systems, I don't know if you're aware. But our whole house systems, what's called a 50% duty cycle, you actually only need to replace the filter every three years. Oh, and then we actually come out and we change that filter. So that's really exactly what you're talking about. People forget about that. They forget. Yeah. And that's why there's maintenance plans. And that's why we do the whole house system so that we make sure that those houses have clean air, and that they continue to have clean air filters are changed.

Lisa Beres 35:56

Yeah, your units all have filter change indicator lights.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 36:00

Yes, they do.

Lisa Beres 36:01

Yeah. Okay. And that's really helpful. Because not all air purifiers do and you will get confused. So, we all get busy. Well, Glory, thank you so much for being with us. Is there anything else you want to leave listeners with?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 36:13

Just our app, and it's free. So, you can actually download our Air Visual app at the App Store and Google Play. So, go for it.

Lisa Beres 36:21

Awesome. We'll put links to both of those in the show notes.

Ron Beres 36:23

There's 35 million people have that app. Wow, that is a large audience.

Lisa Beres 36:31

Yeah, excellent job and everything you guys are doing. Remember friends, as Lyndon B. Johnson said, The American people have a right to air that they and their children can breathe without fear. To learn more about IQAir, please visit www.iqair.com.

Ron Beres 36:49

And as usual, we'll have all the links in the show notes at run elisa.com forward slash podcast. Stay tuned for next episode, and get ready to uplevel your health. See you then. Bye.

Narrator 37:03

This episode of the Healthy Home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed up. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.