21.6 Indoor air pollution may pose a bigger health threat than outdoor air pollution.

As Nadeau discovered, outdoor air quality substantially impacts human health. However, we breathe air indoors as well as outdoors, and indoor air quality is a growing concern among public health scientists. In fact, people living in affluent, developed nations may find their greatest exposure to unhealthy air comes from indoors. This is because so much time is spent indoors in homes, schools, or the workplace; these areas contain many potential air pollution sources. For instance, cigarette smoke causes significant health problems, including eye, nose, and mucous membrane irritation; lung damage, which can exacerbate or cause asthma; and lung cancer. Items in our home, like paint, cleaners, and furniture, release VOCs, which can also cause health problems.

Outdoor pollutants can also find their way into our buildings. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced from the decay of uranium in rock. It can seep through the foundations of homes and accumulate in basements; exposure to radon can cause lung cancer. Not every area has the type of rock that produces radon, but buildings constructed over areas where soil or groundwater is contaminated with VOCs, such as areas with underground chemical storage tanks, also present an infiltration risk. [infographic 21.6]

Infographic: 21.6SOURCES OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTION

For most people, the greatest exposure to air pollution comes from being indoors. There are many sources of air pollution in a home or other building, as these structures tend to trap pollutants, keeping concentrations high. One can reduce exposure by avoiding or limiting the use of carpets, upholstered items, and furniture made with toxic glue and formaldehyde. Safer cleaners and low-VOC paints are readily available. Simple behaviours like taking off your shoes before entering the house and using a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter will also help—especially important if you have indoor pets. Good ventilation and properly working heating and air conditioning units help keep indoor air pollutants at bay.

In developing countries, where many people cook and heat with open fires, smoke and soot from burning wood, charcoal, dung, or crop waste are major sources of indoor pollution. Kirk Smith, a professor of environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that indoor fires increase the risk of pneumonia, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, cataracts, and low birth weight in babies born of women who are exposed during pregnancy. “Considering that half the world’s households are cooking with solid fuels, this is a big problem,” Smith says. “Current estimates are that indoor fires cause the premature death of 1.5 to 2 million women and children per year.” Many nonprofit organizations are stepping up to meet this problem with a simple, $50 solar cooker that allows people to cook food without building a fire. This technology has the added advantage of not depleting local biomass resources for fuel.