4 Ways To Prevent Mold From Forming In Your Home After An Extreme Storm

There's a lot to consider about how we as a species will weather climate change. However, there's one topic that rarely gets brought to the table when it comes to this worldwide crisis: indoor environmental health.

Our indoor environments play an enormous role in our ongoing well-being. The average person breathes 20,000 breaths per day and spends 90% of their time indoors1, so what's in these spaces matters.

As we fight to combat climate change, I'd argue that we also need to make sure our homes remain safe in the process.

Keeping our indoor environments safe from the worst effects of climate change will take a coordinated effort from the construction, remediation, and insurance industry. But there are some things we can do as individuals to protect ourselves and our spaces, too. Here's how I recommend getting started:

Ensure your home is prepped and ready for extreme weather by staying on top of building maintenance. This involves keeping gutters clean and in good shape, regularly checking for structural issues and resolving any that pop up, and ensuring that landscape grading slopes down and away from the home in all directions.

While the air quality shifts outdoors due to global warming, we must actively work to promote healthier air quality within our indoor environments. Investing in air purifiers, maintaining your HVAC system, deep cleaning often (especially dusting), and upgrading to the highest-rated MERV filters2 and changing them on time are all excellent ways to foster indoor air quality.

From there, action plans should be set in place should water damage occur. Microbial growth happens fast, so responding quickly and correctly is key to reducing contamination and exposure as much as possible. Plan ahead by knowing what steps you will take and which professionals you will call in the event of water damage.

When choosing insurance, ask questions such as:

Resolving a toxic environment can get expensive quickly. The more coverage a person has, the better protected they'll be for situations that pop up.

Climate change will bring about an unknown number of obstacles, and we cannot forget to include the impact it will have on our indoor spaces. Solving this upcoming health crisis will take time and effort from all of us. The aforementioned actions are all ways to increase your personal awareness and safeguard your indoor environment right now. And who knows; they may help tremendously down the line.