Three Ways Super-High Humidity Can Be Dangerous To Your Health

Although high humidity may not be as bad as low humidity (depending on who you ask), it's actually possible to damage your health with high humidity, especially in summer if you allow it to collect in your house. Here are three ways that overly high humidity can be bad for you.

1. Making it harder for sweat to evaporate

When sweat evaporates, it cools your skin. But the more water is already in the air (aka the higher the humidity is), the less the air wants to suck up more water, which means the slower water will be to evaporate. You'd think this would mean that it would be harder for you to become dehydrated in this situation, because your body wouldn't be able to get rid of the sweat, but actually the opposite is the case. If sweat won't evaporate, your body thinks it hasn't tried hard enough, so it just makes more and more sweat, which also won't evaporate but just sits on your skin feeling wet and uncomfortable. And because the evaporative cooling is broken, it's easy to become overheated as well as dehydrated. This can be very dangerous especially in summer when heat stroke and heat exhaustion are already possible.

2. Growing mold

The higher the humidity is, the harder it will be to keep mold from growing on your walls, upholstery, and belongings. Mold is not only highly allergenic and irritating to the mucous membranes, but it's also potentially toxic. There's a reason why mold problems so often show up in the bathroom, mudroom, or basement: mold loves dampness and humidity. If your house has extremely humid air, everything in it will be slightly damper, and it will basically be a perfect place for mold to grow. You can fight the mold with hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, and mold prevention coatings, but dehumidifying the air is the best way to decrease the likelihood of mold growth. 

Bringing on asthma attacks

Asthmatic individuals all have different triggers; sometimes asthma is an allergic reaction to a specific allergen, but with other cases, there may be many triggers that can set it off. Highly humid air can set off asthma in certain individuals, so if either you or any of your family or friends has asthmatic tendencies, this could be very harmful.

These three points show how excessively humid air could directly or indirectly cause harm and ill health if you don't do something about it. Contact a mold remediation company, like Servpro Of Washington County, for more help.


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