When you or your family get taken down with the flu, the blame is swiftly placed on the people around you or the environment. "It's going around", you might say, or "The weather's changing". However, did you ever consider that you might be placing yourself in harm's way? That it's no-one else's fault but your own? Or that you could have prevented it? A quick check of your car air con system by a trained mobile air con technician will be able to answer those exact questions.

In just over an hour, a mobile air con technician can service your car air con system, cleansing out any dirt, bacteria, or mould build up that may be lurking there. Ideally, it should be done on a regular basis, once every year or year and a half, to ensure that the cleanliness is maintained and the potential environment to host bacteria, gone.

Now, you may not think the bacteria developed in your car air con system could actually produce anything dangerous, however, if so, you would be wrong. One of the most famous diseases to have festered in mould cultures is the highly contagious Legionnaire's Disease, which attacks the respiratory organs, resulting in many cases, in acute influenza or worse, pneumonia.

These diseases put a fair amount of strain on the immune system of an adult, however, on a child they can be debilitating. Children suffering from allergies, sensitivities, or who simply have a weak immune system become particularly susceptible to the after-effects of being subject to such dangerous strains of diseases.

Wondering how to tell if your car has mould? Just smell. If there is a strange odour coming from your car, that cannot be otherwise identified, then more than likely it is mould and requires immediate attention.

Unfortunately, if there are pollutants in your car air con system then they are just re-circulated every time the car air con system is used. So, aggravating dust particles, mould spores, and other air-borne diseases are simply moved around the interior of the car, depositing themselves on the passengers unaware within.

You may also be under the impression that your car could never be host to dangerous bacteria, however in tests run by the State Medical Centre in Louisiana, researchers found no less than eight varieties of mould in all but three of the 25 cars they tested!

Although mould can develop in places other the just the car air con system, it is the most common. Damp mats or wet seats (from spilling a drink) provide a very good environment for the reproduction of spores, so it's important to maintain your car stays very dry.

Considering that car air con units, if left with filters unchanged, piping un cleaned and systems irregularly, can develop serious mould and/or bacteria conditions for mould reproduction, it seems remiss not to take good care to ensure it doesn't happen. If you have children, sensitive or not, even more so.

So next time you catch yourself sneezing in the car, try to remember when the last time it was that you called your local mobile air con technician to service your car air con system. If you can't remember, then it's been too long!