In This Issue: Sam's Monthly Car Care Tip | Indoor Air Quality | Stopping Junk Mail & Viruses, Part 1

 

 

Sam’s Monthly Maintenance Tip

 

by Sam Opoku of Sam’s Total Car Care Centre

 

Brakes

Brakes are a critical function of your car with several components. There are front and rear sets, each designed to stop the tires from rotating using friction. The front brakes have calipers that squeeze down on a rotor (rotating disk). The rear brakes typically have a rotating drum and brake shoes that press against it from the inside. When you depress the brake pedal, the brake fluid changes pressure and causes the parts to move.

 

The rotor in particular has a specific thickness that can be changed due to friction and uneven wear. The fluid also absorbs moisture and that may affect the performance of your brakes.

 

It is critical to have your brakes inspected regularly. It is also important to have the brake fluid flushed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for your vehicle (given in km or age of your vehicle).

 

 

Indoor Air Quality

 

by Ken Bayliss of Mohawk Duct Cleaning Services

 

The average human being breathes 22,000 litres of air per day; 17,600 litres from your home. Pure, clean air is more important than healthy food and pure water. How long can you hold your breath?

 

The Consumer Federation of America cites that indoor air pollution is responsible for up to 50% of all illness. Most of the dust in your house is your own dead skin (a dust mite’s food source).We produce up to 50 million flakes of dead skin per day or 40 pounds per year.

 

42/1000 of an inch of dust stuck to the fins of your furnace blower and the walls of your ducts can reduce the efficiency of your HVAC system by 40%. Dust mites create household dust; up to 200 times their own bodyweight, from their dead skin, feces and dead carcasses. 42,000 dust mites can live in only one ounce of dust. Dust can host 15 different species of dust mites.

 

It is estimated that you breathe in 2 heaping teaspoons of air particles a day, including dust. Doctors advise us that dust is the last great medium of human infection. Germs have no means of locomotion except to attach themselves to particles of dust.

 

Dust, mold and other viral microbial problems escalate because of heat and humidity above 70%.
EPA studies of exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor levels can be 100 times greater than outdoor levels. These contaminants continually circulate your home’s system until they’re removed.

 

A filter traps. It doesn’t kill! You will breathe in any micro-organism that can get through your furnace filter. You must remove and/or kill these organisms to alleviate allergies, asthma and other diseases.
Spider webs deep in your return ducts are an indication of mold. Spider webs are rarely found in supply ductwork. They seem comfy in cold, moldy environments.

 

Brand new homes should be cleaned; drywall dust will remain in your ducts until it is removed. (Not to mention sandwich wrappers, pop cans, cigarette packs and coffee cups). Your new home will need to be dusted much less if you have your ducts cleaned properly.

 

Don’t hold your breath: BREATHE EASY … CLEAN YOUR DUCTS!

 

 

 

Stopping Junk Mail & Viruses, Part 1

 

by Robert Lalonde of My PC Consultant

 

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

 

Every time you forward an e-mail information is left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer.

 

Worse, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them, all for five cents for each hit if you click on the link. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:

 

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

 

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.

 

(3) Remove any "FW :" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

 

Next month we'll continue with more information on how you can help stop the junk mail and the viruses.