Indoor Air Quality
In these post-COVID times
DIRT ON INDOOR AIR
In these COVID times where we stay home to save lives concurrently with environmental health experts identifying the potentially dire consequences of infectious and polluted indoor air-What can we do to potentially mitigate the effects of harmful indoor air on our health as the time we spend indoors increases?
Many people may not realize that the indoor air they are exposed to daily may sometimes be more unsafe than the outdoor air of a typical city. Indoor air pollution has been known to cause a wide variety of unfavorable health effects in otherwise healthy people like conjunctival irritation, fatigue, headaches, respiratory issues, frequent colds and sore throats, eczema, dizziness or even memory lapses.
So, what are sources of indoor pollution? Working kitchens, furniture, wall coverings like wallpaper and paints, built-in cabinetry, personal care products and even household cleaning products just to name some.
Given the increased cleaning frequency that goes on in most indoor spaces these days with even stronger disinfectants than before in an attempt to reduce viral infection rates, the very thing we are using to protect our health now contributes more than ever to indoor pollution.
On top of that, efforts to improve energy efficiency by making spaces more airtight will result in indoor spaces with reduced outdoor ventilation, and hence causing buildup of indoor pollutants to levels that are higher than before.
Pollutants include (but are not limited to) substances like biological pollutants, asbestos, cooking burners and cookware, formaldehyde, pesticides, indoor particulate matter, second tobacco smoke and VOCs (we’ll discuss VOCs in the next topic).
Indoor particulate matter are microscopic particles of dust and dirt in the air.
Asbestos is used in a variety of renovation and construction materials like insulation, or as a fire retardant. Exposure to asbestos exposure increases one’s risk of developing lung disease, mesothelioma, or asbestosis.
Cooking burners and non-stick cookware heated beyond a certain temperature generate nitrogen oxide and particles. Cooking over a flame on a burner, through direct combustion of natural gas produces a higher quantity of harmful particles than non-combustion cooking methods like electric ovens and microwaves.
