OPEN YOUR DAMN WINDOWS!

I have a friend who likes to boast that she goes right from heat to air conditioning.   She rarely opens her windows.  According to her, her family is either too hot or too cold.  Likewise, I have many friends in Florida who are always in air conditioning.  It’s on in their homes, cars, businesses and the establishments they patronize.   Well, I’m here to write…..”OPEN YOUR DAMN WINDOWS.”   I would use a stronger word than damn, but I’m too ladylike.

Breathing pure air is just as important as eating pure food.   We breathe so our bodies can inhale oxygen and, at the same time, exhale waste matter from our blood, carbon dioxide.  In other words, we are eliminating impurities from the blood and revitalizing our blood with oxygen.   Every cell in our body needs the oxygen provided by breathing.  In addition, breathing warms the body as well as converts the food that has been digested by the stomach into the blood for use throughout the body.  For these reasons it is imperative that we breathe clean, fresh air.

The air in our homes, cars and businesses is worse than ever.  Because of the chemicals used today in just about every household item, our indoor air is severely compromised.   Just think about it.  Our carpets and furniture, paints, building materials, synthetic fabrics all have VOC’s also known as volatile organic compounds which off-gas pollutants and chemicals.  Our mattresses have chemical flame retardants.  Even new kitchen cabinets are laced with formaldehyde.  The news gets worse.  I haven’t even mentioned the usual household culprits such as dust, pollen and mold.   Throw these in the mix and what you have is ILLNESS.  Seriously, if you breathe these pollutants for hours on end without any fresh air, you will get sick.  This is why you must, “OPEN YOUR DAMN WINDOWS.”  I have one more point to make about indoor air…

As you know, you are exhaling carbon dioxide every time you breathe.  Did you know that it’s not a good idea to breathe another person’s breath?  We should not take in the waste matter which someone else has just breathed out.  When you are in a room with no windows open, you are breathing everyone’s exhaled air.  This means that the air in sealed establishments such as theatres, stores, schools, cars and your own home is very unhealthy.  There is a simple remedy, and it’s free, “OPEN YOUR DAMN WINDOWS!”

It is important that both children and adults have fresh air during the day and during the night…..YEAR-ROUND!  Yes, this means even if it is super hot or super cold out.  No bedroom will be healthy unless you sleep with a window open.  In fact, my neighbor, who is 80 years old, said she learned when she was in school that the windows in the bedroom should always be kept open at least 2 inches, even in the winter!  Okay, this picture is a little extreme, but you get the point….

NATURE IS COOL!  Did you wonder why if everyone is exhaling bad air, how come the air outside is not bad.  Well, our oceans, seas, lakes, deserts and mountains play an important role in purifying the atmosphere.  Here is a great explanation from Macfadden’s Encyclopedia, “The winds scatter the poisonous gases, the dust, and other injurious substances held in suspension in the atmosphere, where population is congested, and carries them out to sea or into the vast spaces of the desert.  There the dust settles and by the free and undisturbed action of the sun the poisons are eliminated.”  Hence, the wind is nature’s scavenger helping to remove the impurities in the atmosphere produced by us and substituting pure fresh air for you and me to breathe.  As a side note, this is why it is imperative we do not poison our air, water, deserts and mountains because we need them to survive.

I’m sure I will get some complaints about this post but….., but……., but……  I don’t want to hear any buts.  (I’m putting my hands over my ears.)  Do some further research on the topic and see what conclusions you come up with.  We are meant to breathe fresh, pure outdoor air, not chemically infested indoor air.  “OPEN YOUR DAMN WINDOWS!”

**Some of the information I have gathered for this blog post are from “old” books.  The information presented from these books is not “out-of-date,” but rather just “lost.”

REFERENCES

E/The Environmental Magazine, 2005 Green Living: Penguin Group, New York

Ivison, Blakeman, and Company, 1889, Physiology and Health, New York and Chicago

Macfadden, Bernarr, 1928, MacFadden’s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, MacFadden Publications, Inc, New York