Home has always been considered a safe place, but your home is also the home to many dangers which can harm you. Without even realising you could be breathing in and using harmful things every day of your life. There are many ways to protect yourself from these dangers, I recommend that you always get professional help and advice if you feel your home may have one of these dangers.
Radon
If I were reading this article a few months ago, I would have already been lost. What is Radon? It scares me that there was a time when I didn’t know what Radon is, and if I didn’t know there must be others reading right now who do not know what Radon is. To answer those people, Radon is a deadly gas which can access you house from beneath the ground. The terrifying thing about Radon is that it is a colourless and odourless gas and has been identified as the second main cause behind lung cancer. Each year Radon has been identified as the cause of over one thousand lung cancer related deaths. So how do you protect yourself from this deadly gas? Making sure that you get a gas safety check, a qualified professional can make sure that everything is safe and offering advice about how to protect from harmful gasses such as Radon.
Asbestos
Most people know the danger of Asbestos, it can cause a number of serious illnesses such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. If disturbed, asbestos can enter the air and affect your health with the aforementioned illnesses. Asbestos was once used as a building material for housing due its high fire resistance properties as well as its effectiveness as heat insulation. The use of Asbestos was banned in 1985 but it can still be present in a lot of older homes. The risk of asbestos entering the air can be caused when remodelling or doing DIY in your home.
Lead
Lead can be found in numerous places in your home, it was regularly use in paints and pipes. Lead can enter your body through your bloodstream and can cause a wide range of problems, the worst case scenarios can culminate in comas or even death. Lead can particularly affect the liver, kidneys and your brain, it has been linked brain and nervous system damage. The use of lead paint in the UK was banned in 1992 except for certain specialised applications and it is illegal to use lead for pipes, especially pipes for drinking water.
Electrical
There can be so many electrical dangers in your home, most of the time they provide some kind of sign that something is not working well. Hopefully you have you’re the electrical wiring in your house regularly checked by a professional. I personally have experienced a problem with a wire melting in my home which caused flickering lights and often cut the power, the qualified professional who found this problem told me that if it was left without repair it would have caused an electrical fire.