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Southern Cross Health Features

Welcome to our online health and healthy lifestyle magazine. This information is necessarily of a general nature. You should always seek specific medical advice for treatment appropriate to you.

Household moisture is a health worry

No matter what the weather’s doing, we’re nice and dry inside the house, right? Wrong!

Moisture build-up is a real problem in New Zealand’s heavily insulated modern homes. A family can generate up to 15 litres of moisture a day just by breathing, cooking, bathing, heating, and drying clothes — leading to dampness and condensation.

This not only causes deterioration to our curtains, furniture and appliances, but also increases the chances of mould build-up. Mould releases spores in the air that can cause severe allergic reactions, such as watery eyes, runny noses and sneezing, nasal congestion and fatigue.

Several household-cleaning products remove mould. Dehumidifiers are also useful, because they remove moisture from the air, and so reduce the propagation of dust mites, and help prevent mould and mildew.

Because air quality is improved and moisturised, dehumidifiers help ease problems such as swollen nasal passages, sinus headaches and asthma.