Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and responsible for scads of diseases such as asthma, lung cancer, ventricular hypertrophy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, psychological complications, autism, retinopathy, fetal growth, and low birth weight. Environmental air pollution has been talked about in length where lobbyist bat for more machines and environmentalist fight for efficient systems. But less is spoken about the air inside our homes, in our public spaces, at our work-space. It’s time we think about them.
On day to day basis, we have been shared statistics on how our world is polluted and how it's affecting us in every facets of our life. Weather channels flash pollution statistics with the visual of our city filled with smoke and fog.
Indoor air is more polluted than the air outside! Yes, you read that right! Sometimes up to two to five times higher than the air outside and occasionally more than 100 times higher than outdoor levels. That's a lot. US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) says that on average, Americans spend 90% of their time Indoor and it shouldn't be of much different to urban and semi-urban Indians.
Source of Indoor Pollutants
According to EPA, sources of indoor air pollution may include: combustion sources; building materials and furnishings; household cleaning, maintenance and personal care or hobby products; central heating and cooling systems and humidification devices; and outdoor sources such as radon, pesticides; lead-based paints; tobacco smoke, log and wood smoke; asbestos and outdoor pollution.
Is our indoor air polluted?
Health effects from these indoor pollutants can be experienced immediately after exposure or, possibly, after a few years. Certain health effects are similar to that of cold or viral disease and due to this, it's often difficult to find out if it was caused by indoor pollution. If the symptoms go away when a person is away from home and returns when the person comes back to the home, that's the clue for you to find the cause of the indoor air pollution and rectify it.
Three Basic strategy
US EPA recommends three basic strategies for controlling air pollution at our homes.
01. Source Control
The most effective way to improve indoor air quality is finding the source of air pollution and eliminating the source or reducing the emission. This method is the most effective solution in controlling air pollution at our homes.
02. Ventilation Improvement
Ventilation! Yes! you heard me. Open your windows and doors and increase the air coming to your home (when the outdoor is good). Bathroom and kitchen fans remove the odour and contaminants in that particular room and also increases the outdoor ventilation. To install them and use them. If your outdoor air quality is poor due to vehicle exhaust, ventilation cannot be effective unless it's accompanied by filtration and air cleaning.
03. Air Cleaners
There are many types of air cleaners available in the market ranging from the table-top to whole-house systems. Table-top air cleaners are highly effective in reducing the particle in the air whereas can not effectively remove pollutants from strong nearby sources. A study conducted by NASA in 1989 suggests that indoor plants are helpful in removing the organic chemicals from our homes. The plant removes indoor air pollution either directly through their leaves or indirectly through the root/soil pathway.
Air pollutants in our homes
Radon(Rn), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Organic Gases, Formaldehyde, Pesticides, Asbestos, Lead (Pb), Benzene (C6H6), Trichloroethylene (C2HCl3) are the major pollutants that can be found in our homes.
We'll discuss the sources of the chemicals, their health effects and their acceptable levels in our home and how to safeguard your family from this pollution in our next post.