We hear about Legionnaire's disease outbreaks traced to the air conditioning system. Buildings are highlighted on the news as making their tenants sick and it's referred to as sick building syndrome. Individual homes are linked to increases in allergies and asthma. Can it happen to your home and what can you do to prevent it or correct it if you are already the proud owner of a house that is making you sick?

The ever-increasing cases of sick building syndrome are due to the way houses and buildings are constructed to conserve energy. Stop air movement in and out of the home and you reduce the energy required to heat and cool the house. After you seal the house up, central cooling and heating systems maintain livable temperatures and humidity levels within the home by re-circulation of the same air and pollutants day after day.
Dust, bacteria, viruses, mold, fungus, mildew and gases circulate through the building.
The dust can come from skin, hair, clothes or just come off shoes when we walk in and out.

The mildew, fungus and molds can come in along with the dust or we can grow our own in the HVAC system.The gases are volatile organic compounds that are given off by dyes, paints, varnishes and adhesives used in modern building materials. The best example of gases is that burning eye sensation we get after new carpet is installed.
As the AC system condenses moisture from the air, a drain is supposed to take this moisture out of the system. What really happens is that some of this water splashes on the interior insulation and some of it is left standing in the bottom of the pan that is not designed or installed to get it completely out of the system. So, now, we have moisture ready to support the growth of assorted micro-organisms that will cause a variety of respiratory problems.