There’s been a lot of talk about toxins in today’s homes, polluting the air and contaminating surfaces, which is why it comes as no surprise that the current number of allergy sufferers in the U.S. is rather high: more than 50 million, according to Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). And not to freak you out or anything, but this can be a problem for you even if you’ve never had allergies before. That’s because changes in your body, or in the load level of a certain allergen in the home, could trigger the onset of symptoms. (The sniffles that won’t go away? It might not be a summer cold. The sudden outbreak of hives? Maybe not a sweat rash.)
According to Rachel Rothman, Chief Technologist at the Good Housekeeping Institute, the key to clearing the air in your home is to control the main culprits at their source and capture any that remain. To help you get a handle on this, we asked Rothman, along with experts at AAFA, Allergy Standards, and Levoit (a company known for its ultra-effective air purifying products), to give us the dirt on exactly how to eliminate six biggies.