Turkmen folk belief has its own commonly recorded term: ırım, a category that can include omens, protective rules, taboos, auspicious actions, and practices woven into adat, dep, and dessur. Fieldwork-based scholarship from Turkmenistan records these beliefs in ordinary household life as well as weddings, journeys, weather observation, protection from the evil eye, and ideas surrounding sacred water and rain. This collection documents 84 distinct Turkmen ırıms and closely connected folk-belief practices; it is a documented selection rather than a claim that Turkmenistan has a fixed total number of superstitions.
Several of the strongest collections were gathered during fieldwork in the 1990s and 2000s, while later research compared written records with interviews in places including Aşgabat and Türkmenabat. Their presence in a folklore record does not mean every Turkmen family follows them now. Some are remembered rules, some survive as customs, and others belong to particular families, regions, generations, or ceremonial settings.
Bread, Households, Travel, and Everyday Taboos
Cutting Nails at Night Is Avoided
Older Turkmen schoolbooks and folklore studies record the rule that fingernails should not be cut at night. The act could be described as sinful or unlucky, showing how a household prohibition could acquire both moral and supernatural meaning.
Friday Laundry Is Traditionally Avoided
One documented ırım says clothes should not be washed on Friday. The rule appeared alongside other folk beliefs in Turkmen educational material and illustrates the overlap between customary timing, religious language, and domestic routine.
Bread Should Not Be Broken With One Hand
Breaking bread with only one hand is described in recorded Turkmen belief as improper and, in some accounts, sinful or harmful to one’s standing. Bread carries strong associations with sustenance and household abundance, so its treatment is surrounded by rules.
Eating While Standing Lets the Devil Share the Food
A traditional saying warns that eating while standing allows the devil to share a person’s rızk, or provision. The belief turns a rule of table conduct into a warning about losing part of the blessing associated with food.
Eating With a Knife Is Taboo
Eating directly from a knife is listed among everyday Turkmen ırıms as a forbidden or sinful act. In this form the belief functions less as a prediction than as a traditional prohibition governing manners around food and sharp objects.
Dropped Bread Announces a Guest
If bread slips from someone’s hand, one Turkmen household omen interprets it as a sign that a guest will arrive. The prediction belongs to a larger group of domestic signs linking food preparation and the table with approaching visitors.
A Washing Cat Means Guests Are Coming
A cat grooming or washing itself may be read as advance notice of visitors. The omen was recorded in Turkmen educational folklore material, where animal behaviour appears beside weather signs and kitchen events as a way of anticipating what may happen next.
Splashed Dough Predicts Visitors
When dough splashes during kneading, a Turkmen domestic omen says a guest is on the way. Unlike a formal ritual, this is an interpretation of an accidental event during ordinary food preparation.
Evening Rubbish Can Carry Away Prosperity
After a house has been cleaned in the evening, taking the rubbish outside is traditionally avoided in one recorded belief. Doing so is said to remove the household’s bereket, the sense of blessing, plenty, or productive abundance associated with the home.
Do Not Sweep While a Traveller Is Still on the Road
When someone leaves on a journey, one household rule says the home should not be swept until the traveller reaches the destination. The custom symbolically protects the person’s connection with home while the journey remains unfinished.
Sweeping Behind Someone May Stop Their Return
Sweeping immediately behind a person who has departed carries a stronger omen: the person is said not to return. The broom therefore becomes more than a cleaning tool in this belief; its movement can symbolically erase a person’s path back.
A Broom Should Not Be Left Standing Upright
Traditional household rules recorded in Turkmen folklore discourage leaving a broom upright against the wall after sweeping. Sources preserve the prohibition without always giving a single fixed consequence, a reminder that some ırıms operate mainly as inherited rules.
An Upward-Facing Knife Blade Brings Discord
Leaving the sharp edge of a knife facing upward is said to lead to disagreement in the household. The omen turns the position of an everyday kitchen object into a warning about domestic harmony.
Greeting on the Threshold Can Lead to a Quarrel
Standing at the doorway or threshold while greeting another person is linked in one recorded Turkmen belief with a future argument. Thresholds repeatedly appear in local ceremonial lore as sensitive boundaries between one space and another.
Sitting or Lying Across a Doorway Is Avoided
Older ethnographic records describe sitting in a doorway or resting one’s head on a threshold as inappropriate. The rule fits a wider Turkmen pattern in which the entrance to a home is treated differently from ordinary interior space.
The Right Side Should Come First
A group of traditional rules favours beginning with the right: a bride may enter her new home with the right foot, food is taken with the right hand, and the right shoe may be put on first. Starting on the left can carry an unlucky interpretation.
White Foods Are Not Exchanged at Sunset
One collection warns against giving or trading white staples such as milk, flour, sugar, or rice around sunset. The consequence is expressed as loss of rızk, making the fading of daylight an inauspicious moment for transferring foods associated with household provision.
Money Should Not Be Counted or Lent at Night
Counting money or lending it after dark is traditionally avoided because the earnings of the household are said to lose their bereket. The omen associates nighttime financial transactions with diminishing prosperity rather than literal financial prediction.
Itches, Twitches, Coughs, and Body Omens
An Itch Inside the Nose Brings Wedding News
An itch felt inside the nose is interpreted in one Turkmen body omen as notice that wedding news will soon be heard. Such signs turn brief bodily sensations into forecasts about social events.
An Itch Outside the Nose Means News From Afar
The location of a nose itch changes its meaning. An itch on the outside is said to announce news from a distant place, while an itch inside the nose has a wedding association in the same recorded collection.
An Itching Right Palm Predicts Money
If the inside of the right hand begins to itch, folk interpretation connects it with money coming to the person. It is an omen rather than a financial rule and has no predictive basis outside the cultural belief.
An Itching Sole Foretells a Journey
An itch on the sole of the foot is interpreted as a sign of travel ahead. The association between feet and movement makes this one of the more direct examples of symbolic reasoning in recorded Turkmen body omens.
A Twitching Right Eyebrow Signals Happiness
A twitch in the right eyebrow is traditionally read as a favourable sign connected with happiness. The right side receives a positive meaning in several Turkmen ırıms, including rules about entering a house and dressing.
A Twitching Left Eyebrow Signals Sadness
The corresponding left-eyebrow omen reverses the meaning: a twitch may be interpreted as coming sadness or worry. This right-versus-left contrast occurs in several older folk-belief systems and is explicitly recorded in Turkmen material.
Right-Ear Ringing Means Good News
Ringing in the right ear is treated as a favourable omen and associated with good news. This is a cultural interpretation of a bodily sensation, not a medical explanation for tinnitus or other ear symptoms.
Left-Ear Ringing Means Bad News
Ringing in the left ear receives the opposite interpretation and may be taken as an omen of unwelcome news. Persistent or troublesome ear ringing has medical causes and should not be judged by a folk prediction.
An Itching Ear Can Announce Rain
Another body sign connects an itching ear with rain to come. Unlike observation-based weather lore involving frost or the moon, this is a straightforward bodily omen and should be understood as folklore rather than meteorology.
Itching Eyebrows Mean a Guest Is Coming
An itch around the eyebrows is said to announce a visitor. Guest omens are particularly numerous in the recorded material: cats, bread, dough, dropped utensils, coughs, and bodily sensations can all carry a hospitality-related meaning.
A Tuesday Cough Predicts a Guest
In one weekday-based omen, coughing on Tuesday means a guest will arrive. The belief assigns different outcomes to the same bodily event depending on the day on which it happens.
A Thursday Cough Points to a Long Journey
Coughing on Thursday is given a travel interpretation rather than a hospitality one: a long road or distant journey is said to lie ahead. It is a calendar omen, not a health interpretation of coughing.
A Sunday Cough Means a Visit
A cough on Sunday is connected with going out as a guest or visiting another household. Together with Tuesday and Thursday versions, it shows how weekday timing could alter the meaning assigned to an ordinary event.
A Friday Sneeze Predicts a Meeting
Sneezing on Friday is interpreted in one recorded list as a sign that a meeting or encounter will occur. The superstition attaches a social forecast to timing rather than treating the sneeze as evidence about the future.
Itching Lips Predict a Kiss
If the lips begin to itch, a traditional body omen says a kiss is coming. The connection is based on the body part involved, a common pattern in folk interpretations of itching and twitching.
Biting the Tongue Means Someone Is Angry or Gossiping
Accidentally biting one’s tongue can be interpreted as evidence that another person is angry with the individual or speaking about them behind their back. The belief uses an accidental bodily event as a social warning.
A Red Right Ear Means the Truth Is Being Told About You
When the right ear becomes red, one folk interpretation says other people are speaking truthfully about the person. It belongs to the same family of beliefs that connects sensations around the ears with distant speech or news.
A Needle Prick Can Be Read as a Love Omen
One older collection says that when an unmarried girl accidentally pricks her hand with a needle, the event may be read as a sign of falling in love. This reflects the gendered courtship folklore of the period in which it was recorded.
Dropped Utensils Identify the Expected Guest
A knife falling from someone’s hand is said to announce a male visitor, while a spoon or ladle may indicate a female visitor. The belief gives different meanings to accidental drops according to the utensil involved.
A Gap Between the Front Teeth Points to a Distant Marriage
Older Turkmen folk material interprets a visible gap between a young person’s front teeth as a sign that the eventual spouse will come from far away. Physical appearance is used here as symbolic fortune-telling rather than evidence about a future marriage.
Nazar, Amulets, and Protective Objects
A Horseshoe Is Considered Lucky
The horseshoe appears in documented Turkmen material as an object associated with good fortune. Its use belongs to a wider class of objects thought to contain protective or auspicious qualities rather than to formal religious doctrine.
Blue Beads Guard Against the Evil Eye
Blue eye beads are recorded among objects worn against nazar, the harmful gaze commonly called the evil eye in English. The protective meaning is cultural; an amulet does not provide medical protection against illness or injury.
Cloth Is Tied at Sacred Trees and Shrines for Wishes
Folklore studies describe pieces of cloth tied to revered trees, shrubs, shrine railings, and other visited places as part of making a vow or expressing a wish. The practice sits at the meeting point of pilgrimage custom and older sacred-landscape beliefs.
Needle, Salt, and Charcoal Protect a New House
One recorded house-building custom places a needle, salt, and charcoal in the foundation so the new home will be protected from the evil eye. Each object gains a symbolic role beyond its ordinary use.
Horns and Animal Skulls Can Serve as House Protectors
Ethnographic records describe horse, ox, or ram skulls and horns displayed on houses or balconies to divert the evil eye. This records the symbolic use of existing objects and should not be understood as encouragement to harm animals.
Yüzerlik Is Hung to Protect Livestock
Yüzerlik, usually identified with Peganum harmala, appears in Turkmen evil-eye traditions. One recorded practice hangs the plant in a stable so livestock will be protected from nazar, giving the plant an apotropaic rather than veterinary role.
The Eye-in-Hand Image Is Treated as Protective
An image of a hand containing an eye is listed among visual forms believed to deflect the evil eye. Its presence in the Turkmen record belongs to a broader regional vocabulary of protective hand and eye symbols.
Shells on a Cradle Protect a Baby From Nazar
Sea shells attached to a child’s cradle are documented as a protective device against the evil eye. The practice is symbolic folk protection and should not be treated as a substitute for ordinary infant health or safety measures.
Written and Wooden Amulets Repel the Evil Eye
Protective objects may include paper bearing verses or prayers, wooden pieces, and amulets described in sources as betük or made from particular trees. Their purpose may be protection from nazar or unseen misfortune.
A Piece of Shrine Cloth May Be Carried for Protection
A small piece taken from a covering at a revered tomb or shrine has been recorded as an object believed to protect its bearer from the evil eye. This is a folk practice associated with sacred visitation, not a universal Islamic requirement.
“Tüveleme” and “Maşallah” Deflect the Evil Eye
When admiring a person, especially a bride or child, protective expressions such as tüveleme and maşallah may be spoken so praise will not turn into an evil-eye threat. Religious vocabulary and folk protection overlap in this usage.
Dağdan Wood and Twisted Thread Guard a Doorway
Older fieldwork records shepherds and hunters making amulets from a tree called dağdan. Twisted or snake-shaped thread, including material associated with camel hair, could also be hung at a doorway to protect the household.
Salt and Charcoal Inside an Amulet Carry Different Meanings
Some amulets contain salt and charcoal. Folklore explanations connect charcoal with fire and defence against harmful spirits, while salt represents clarity and the hope that the bearer’s future path will remain bright or “white.”
The Güjük Yzy Carpet Motif Protects the Hearth
Turkmen heritage material identifies the carpet ornament güjük yzy, meaning “puppy tracks,” with an old protective belief. The motif was said to guard a person, the household hearth, and livestock from trouble, linking carpet design with protective symbolism.
Before the Bride Leaves: Sehet, White Symbols, and the “Girl’s Nine”
The Wedding Date Can Be Chosen by Sehet
Traditional accounts describe selecting an auspicious wedding time through sehet. A molla could look to the stars or suitable dates when deciding when the marriage celebration should take place, joining calendrical timing with folk astrology.
Marriage Proposals Are Made on Auspicious Days
The visit to ask for a bride could itself be timed for a fortunate day. In this belief, choosing the right moment is expected to improve the prospects of the proposal and the relationship that may follow.
A White Headscarf Brings a Good Outcome
Women going to ask for a bride are recorded wearing a white scarf or covering. White is interpreted as favourable, so the colour becomes a visual wish that the visit will end well.
White Cotton Is Worn for Good Fortune
Another matchmaking custom places pieces of white cotton above the visitors’ eyes. The explanation recorded by folklorists again centres on whiteness: the colour is expected to bring goodness to the undertaking.
Salt-Dipped Bread Symbolizes a Strong New Household
Matchmakers may bring salt and eat bread dipped in it at the prospective bride’s home. Salt and bread are interpreted as signs of abundance, unity, and stability for the household the marriage may create.
Bread and Sugar Wish for Plenty and Sweet Relations
Bread or sugar may accompany a marriage-proposal visit. Folklore explanations give bread the meaning of abundance and sugar the hope that relations between the two families and the future couple will remain sweet.
The Bride’s Trousseau Is Arranged in Nines
Traditional Turkmen wedding material records trousseau fabrics, jewellery, or other pieces in groups of nine, giving rise to the expression commonly translated as the “girl’s nine.” The number becomes part of the ceremonial structure of the dowry.
A White-Threaded Needle Opens an Easy Road
Among some Teke Turkmen, a needle threaded with white thread was cast onto the road when people set out to ask for a bride. The wish was that their path would be “white” and the business ahead would proceed easily.
A Mirror Is Held to the Bride to Keep Her Luck Open
A mirror may be held before the bride’s face during preparations. The purpose given in Turkmen wedding folklore is that her fortune or path should remain “open,” making the mirror an auspicious ceremonial object.
Two Weddings Exchange Bread to Avoid Çile
If two weddings take place in the same locality or setting, the families may exchange bread. The act is intended to prevent either marriage from becoming burdened by çile, a word associated here with hardship or ceremonial misfortune.
At the New Home: Marriage Protection and Prosperity
Taking Something From the Bride’s House Brings Another Wedding
Relatives of the groom may take an object from the bride’s family home with the belief that a wedding or similar happy gathering will then occur in their own household. The object acts as a symbolic carrier of celebration.
Black-and-White Camel-Wool Thread Guards the Bridal Car
A black-and-white thread made from camel wool may be attached to the vehicle carrying the bride. Its stated purpose is to protect her from the evil eye during the transition from one household to another.
A Wooden Stake Symbolically Binds the Bride to Her New Home
The groom’s relatives may take a wooden stake from the bride’s former home and hammer it near the new household. Older explanations say this is done so the bride will remain attached to the home she has entered.
A White Carpet Gives the Bride an Open Path
A white carpet or cloth may be laid from the entrance toward the bride’s place in the new home. Walking over white expresses wishes for a clean, fortunate, and open road in married life.
Sugar Scattered Over the Couple Sweetens Married Life
The groom’s mother may scatter sugar over the newly married couple. Its meaning is explicit in the recorded tradition: their shared life is wished to be sweet and happy, turning the taste of sugar into a marital symbol.
Oil and Salt at the Door Bring Abundance
As the bride enters, one hand may be touched to butter or oil and the other to salt. The paired foods express a wish that the newly formed household will live with plenty and continuing prosperity.
Snapping Scissors Drives Harmful Spirits Away
Among recorded Ersari and Teke wedding practices, women related to the groom repeatedly open and close scissors during the marriage ceremony. The noise is said to prevent devils or harmful spirits from coming between the couple.
Sitting on the Threshold Can “Bind” the Marriage
A person sitting on the threshold while the marriage ceremony is taking place is traditionally feared to “bind” or obstruct the marriage. The belief again treats the doorway as a sensitive boundary where ordinary behaviour can affect ceremonial luck.
A Cradle in the Bridal Room Is a Fertility Symbol
A child’s cradle may be placed in the bridal room, and an older version seats a boy on it. The practice expresses a wish for children and, in the historical form recorded by researchers, sometimes specifically for a first son. It is symbolic rather than predictive.
Shared Sherbet Helps the Couple Become “One Mouth”
After the marriage ceremony, sweet sherbet may be offered first to the bride and groom. Folk explanation says this helps them become “one mouth,” an image of agreement, harmony, and speaking together in married life.
Flour on the Bride’s Hand Carries a Wish for Happiness
Flour is rubbed or placed on the bride’s hand while wishes are made for a happy marriage. Flour, already central to bread making and household food, becomes a ceremonial symbol of the life she is entering.
Yüzerlik Smoke Protects the Bride and Household
One wedding ırım burns yüzerlik as the bride enters the courtyard, with the smoke believed to repel the evil eye and harmful beings. This describes a folk ritual, not a health practice; smoke contains inhalable particles, so exposure and ventilation remain real safety considerations.
Sky, Rain, and Sacred Water
Yedigen Is Repeated Seven Times for Goodness
The seven-star formation associated with the Great Bear is known in Turkmen material as Yedigen. A traditional formula naming its seven stars is repeated seven times, with the repetition believed to bring religious merit or goodness.
An Upright Autumn Moon Warns of a Severe Winter
One Turkmen weather saying interprets the autumn moon standing upright as a warning that winter will be very harsh. It belongs to traditional weather lore based on the appearance of the sky rather than a dependable forecasting method.
Deep Winter Freezing Promises More Wheat
If the ground freezes well during winter, traditional agricultural lore predicts a large wheat harvest. Unlike purely supernatural omens, sayings of this kind may preserve generations of environmental observation, though a single sign cannot determine crop yield.
Evening Frost Means No Snow the Next Day
A recorded Turkmen weather ırım says that when frost settles on the ground in the evening, snow will not fall the following day. The saying was preserved in educational folklore material as an example of experience-based traditional observation.
An Elder’s Prayer Can Bring Rain
Traditional rain lore gives special weight to the prayer of a respected elder or aksakal. A prayer offered by such a person is believed capable of bringing rain, reflecting the wider ceremonial authority attached to elders in Turkmen social life.
Burkut Ata Drives the Clouds and Brings Rain
Burkut Ata, also called Burkut Baba or Burkut Divana in scholarly accounts, is a distinctive figure in Turkmen rain folklore. He is imagined as a sacred rain-associated being who beats or drives clouds and causes rain to fall where he chooses.
A Hudayolu May Be Held During Drought
Accounts of drought customs describe a communal Hudayolu, a gathering made with good intentions, prayer, food, and a vow while asking for rain. In Burkut Ata traditions, the gathering seeks his intercession or assistance in bringing rainfall.
Burkut Ata Is Asked for Help With Childlessness
Burkut Ata’s connection with abundance extends beyond rainfall in recorded legends. Women without children could appeal to him in the hope that their request for a child would be granted. This is religious-folkloric belief, not evidence about fertility treatment.
Rain-Prayer Clothing and Hands May Be Reversed
One rain ritual reverses ordinary positions: clothing may be worn inside out and hands turned downward or reversed during collective prayer. The inversion symbolically asks for dry conditions to be overturned and replaced by rain.
Kyrk Gyz Cave Water Is Regarded as Sacred
Older accounts from the Köýtendag area describe the water of the Kyrk Gyz cave as sacred and connect it in local belief with Zamzam water. Visitors have prayed and made wishes there. The connection is sacred folklore rather than a hydrological or water-safety claim.
Why “Irım” Is Broader Than the English Word “Superstition”
English can make superstition sound like a narrow category of irrational prediction, while the Turkmen material collected under ırım is less tidy. A cat washing itself and predicting guests fits the familiar English idea of a superstition. Respecting bread, choosing a wedding day by sehet, carrying a protective amulet, or refusing to sweep while a relative is travelling can also function as rules of conduct, ceremonial acts, or inherited family customs.
Researchers therefore discuss ırıms beside adat, dep, and dessur. The boundaries between folk belief, social custom, and religious expression are not always sharp. Saying maşallah, for example, has an Islamic setting, while using it specifically to prevent nazar gives the expression a folk-protective function. The same mixing can be seen in rain prayers, shrine visitation, wedding symbols, and older ideas about fire, water, stars, and sacred places.
Fieldwork, Region, and Household Variation
The published record should not be treated as a census of present-day belief. Durmuş Tatlılıoğlu’s large collection was based on research carried out in Turkmenistan from 1995 to 1998, while Ahmet Gökçimen states that many of the uncited examples in his later study were gathered during a 2004 visit. A 2020 comparative study supplemented documentary research with interviews and included Turkmen informants from Türkmenabat and Aşgabat.
Other research shows why locality matters. A study devoted specifically to Mary, or Marı-Merv, province catalogued birth-related beliefs through observation and interviews rather than assuming that one regional set of practices represented the entire country. Wedding material likewise names Teke and Ersari variants in several places. For that reason, a documented Turkmen ırım is best understood as evidence that the belief exists within Turkmen folklore, not proof that every household shares it.
📚 Roots of Belief
- Ahmet Gökçimen — “Türkmen ‘Irımları’ (Halk İnanışları) ve İşlevleri,” Millî Folklor, 2010 — Documents the Turkmen concept of ırım, its relationship with everyday customs, Yedigen star lore, respect for fire and water, weather sayings, guest omens, textbook examples, and a detailed set of wedding beliefs. (Millî Folklor is a long-running scholarly folklore journal, and the article includes field material gathered in Turkmenistan.)
- Durmuş Tatlılıoğlu — “Türkmen Irımları (Halk İnançları)” — Provides fieldwork-based records of household taboos, body omens, wedding practices, evil-eye protection, amulets, sacred-place traditions, rain beliefs, and numerous locally recorded interpretations used throughout the article. (The study states that its data draw on the author’s 1995–1998 research in Turkmenistan and is preserved through the DergiPark academic journal platform.)
- Mustafa Yeniasır, Burak Gökbulut and Adem Öger — “Kazak, Türkmen ve Kıbrıs Türklerinin Halk İnançları ile Gelenekleri Üzerine Karşılaştırmalı Bir İnceleme,” Folklor/Edebiyat, 2020 — Compares Turkmen folk beliefs with Kazakh and Turkish Cypriot material and explains that documentary findings were checked through interviews, including Turkmen informants from Türkmenabat and Aşgabat. (A peer-reviewed folklore research article with stated methodology, publication details, and DOI.)
- Vejdi Bilgin — “Gelenek ve Din: Türkmenistan’ın Dinî Hayatında Geleneğin Rolü,” Marife, 2005 — Records the close relationship among Turkmen tradition, religious language, dep-dessur, adat, and ırıms, including the schoolbook examples concerning night nail-cutting, Friday laundry, and bread. (A scholarly study published in a peer-reviewed religious and social research journal.)
- Ahmet Gökçimen — “Türkmenistan’da Bir Yağmur İyesi ‘Burkut Ata’,” Bilig, 2010 — Examines Burkut Ata in Turkmen rain belief, including the cloud-driving legend, drought vows and Hudayolu gatherings, prayers for rain, and requests associated with children and abundance. (Bilig is the scholarly journal of Ahmet Yesevi University, and this article directly studies the Turkmen Burkut Ata tradition.)
- Turkmenistan State News Agency — “Historical and Cultural Heritage Is the Spiritual Wealth of the People” — Describes the traditional güjük yzy, or puppy-track, carpet ornament and the old belief that it protected a person, the hearth, and livestock from trouble. (An official Turkmen state source reporting on national historical and cultural heritage.)
- Bayram Polat and Rahym Meredov — “Türkmenistan Mary (Marı-Merv) Vilayeti ve Çevresinde Doğumla İlgili İnanışlar ve Uygulamalar,” Journal of Erciyes Academy, 2021 — Studies birth-related beliefs specifically in Mary province and its surroundings through observation, interviews, and collected material, supporting the need to distinguish regional records from countrywide practice. (A scholarly research article with a clearly defined geographic field area and methodology.)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Indoor Particulate Matter — Supports the safety distinction made for smoke-producing folk practices: combustion can produce inhalable particulate matter that affects indoor air quality and can affect the heart and lungs. (The EPA is a national public authority responsible for environmental health and air-quality guidance.)