While laundry is generally air-dried, it’s sometimes necessary to dry indoors, especially when the weather is bad. However, this practice appears to be unhealthy and should be avoided. Here’s some explanation.
While air drying is ideal, it can sometimes be more practical to hang laundry inside if the weather is inclement.
However, if you leave the laundry to dry inside your apartment or house, the moisture spreads into the air and causes health risks.
Why shouldn’t you dry your laundry at home?
Drying your laundry in the sun is recommended because it’s a perfectly healthy and environmentally friendly habit. And for good reason: the sun emits ultraviolet rays capable of eliminating a number of pathogenic organisms. However, drying clothes indoors isn’t recommended. Quite the opposite.
Drying laundry at home allows moisture to enter your space, which can cause mold to grow. Mold can have serious health consequences:
1. Mold spreads quickly in the room
When you hang your laundry in a dryer, the humidity in the room increases by 30%, as detailed in an article on the Consoglobe website. And for good reason, all the water in your laundry basket evaporates and spreads into the air.
Therefore, as humidity increases, the air in the room becomes contaminated with mold and fungi, the effects of which on health can be particularly harmful.
2. Humidity has repercussions on health, especially for asthmatics
For people with asthma, humidity can be a dangerous factor that can cause breathing difficulties. As noted on the health website Medisite, while inhaling mold spores isn’t dangerous, it’s a different story for people with asthma and other respiratory problems.
3. Humidity can lead to lung infection
Aside from those most at risk, such as those with asthma, humidity can trigger allergies and lung diseases. In much rarer but no less significant cases, it can lead to a potentially fatal lung infection.
David Denning, professor of medicine and mycology and director of the National Aspergillosis Centre in Manchester, said: “Every year, several patients are admitted to intensive care due to these types of infections, so it’s important to be aware of the dangers of damp.”
Other risks of drying your laundry at home
– Feeling cold in winter: Cold can be felt more in a humid environment. Therefore, this may encourage some people to increase the heating temperature.
– Bad odors: Persistent musty or damp odors
– A feeling of fatigue or headache
– The spread of mites
– Rust on metal objects. This can be removed with lemon and salt.
– Condensation may appear on windows and wall corners
What to do if you have to dry your wet clothes indoors?
In this case, it is advisable to follow certain measures to limit the risks of indoor drying as much as possible:
_ Your clothes, towels, and sheets should be spaced out in your clothes dryer to allow for better air circulation between the fabrics. Don’t hesitate to remove dry laundry to improve ventilation.
_ Capitalize on spinning clothes at maximum speed to end up with as few damp clothes as possible
_ Prefer daytime drying of your laundry. Drying is accelerated by light and warm air.
_ If you have too many items to dry, you can use hangers
_ Use clothespins to avoid contact between wet fabrics
_ Place your clothes dryer in the least humid room. Ideally, it should have a window to ventilate the humidity and ventilate the room.
_ Move the clothes dryer away from a heat source such as a radiator or fan. This will only promote the evaporation of moisture and create even more saturated air.
_ It is not a very good idea to hang out your wet laundry in the bathroom because it is one of the wet rooms.
_ You should regularly ventilate the room in which your clothes dryer is placed. In this case, you will not need a moisture absorber (or dehumidifier)
_ To get closer to an ideal humidity level, don’t hesitate to renew the air