Air Quality

Just breathe.

Muskoka has some of the best air quality in the province of Ontario.  You breathe in and inhale the fresh, crisp, cool air and somehow feel refreshed and rejuvenated.  If it is negative 20 on that particular day, the fresh cold air makes you move quickly from house to car to work and back again but the air quality is always high and that fresh air is one of the benefits of living up north.

Toronto suffers from smog from time to time and although it makes our sunsets quite pretty, air pollution is unpleasant to breathe in and makes you feel unhealthy.  You would never breathe deeply on a smoggy day in Toronto and feel refreshed.  There are crisp fresh days in Toronto as well, just not as many as in the north.  The industry of the city pollutes the air.

Indoor air quality is less discussed but also important given how many hours we spend at work and at home.  We recently had our air ducts cleaned and it has made the house feel less dusty and musty.  We try to remember to change our furnace filters on a regular basis.  We also sleep with fans and a humidifier going.  Each night the humidifier goes through at least two full liters of water given how dry the air is.  We sleep better with the humid air and find we suffer less sore throats and sinus aggravation.

Air quality at work is an issue.  Our Toronto offices are in an old industrial warehouse building and there are often different smells emanating from the various users of the building.  We have our own heating and air conditioning for our unit so that helps, but the air quality is dodgy some days.

In my folks' Muskoka property, the air quality is crisp and clean, similar to the air outside.  The facility is clean and free of pollutants that cause people irritation.  We have recently had a tenant approach us who needs to leave their existing premises because there is a perpetual smell of chlorine in the air that is making the employees sick.  What an awful work environment.

Working and living in spaces that boast high air quality will make you feel more energetic, will cut down on sickness, and will make you want to breathe deeply.  It only makes sense to do all you can to make the air around you healthy.  Then you can...just breathe.