We all think that the air pollution that gets into our homes comes from cars, lorries and buses pumping out their emissions on the road outside. But tests using ordinary home air purifiers show that often it’s the normal everyday things we are doing in our homes like cooking, burning candles, using wood burning stoves that could be causing more problems to your air quality than you think. And the statistics make for shocking reading…
More than 9,000 people die in the UK each year because of indoor air pollution.
If that surprises you then read on.
In one test after frying food as normal in their kitchen one family’s air pollution level reached 680, when the safe limit set by the World Health Organisation is 10 micrograms per cubic metre! And it contained five times more levels of soot particles than in a major industrial city.
People think that outdoor air pollution is the problem that needs to be solved. But few people realise that the air quality inside typical UK homes is 3-4 times worse than the air quality outside. And, according to a study across four cities, 60% of this poor indoor air quality is caused by what we are doing in our homes and only 40% by what’s going on outside.
One of the problems is that the more we insulate our homes to save on energy costs, the more the outdoor pollution that comes in gets trapped and stays indoors.
So, what can we do about it?
Read the article “How To Clear The Air In Your Home” that gives you tips and lots of different ways you can improve your indoor air quality. And this is vital during the winter months when indoor air quality typically gets worse because we don’t open our windows and doors to let poor quality air out.
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