Indoor Air Pollution: Causes, Effects and Solutions

Indoor Air Pollution

It is the start of a new millennium and being “green friendly” is on everybody’s mind.  People are talking about issues like pollution, global warming, and sustainable living all over the world right now.  However, our outdoor environment is not the only environment that poses a threat to human health.  The indoor environment can actually be considerably worse—up to ten times worse than the polluted air outside!

Indoor air-pollution is a serious, growing problem that few people are even aware of.  In recent years, there have been drastic increases in many health related illnesses and symptoms due to indoor air pollution. In Fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ranked indoor air pollution in the top five threats to human health.  Polluted indoor air can be problematic in any building: the home, office, classroom, shopping mall, etc.  Numerous things contribute to poor air quality.  Luckily though, with a little bit of discipline and knowledge there is hope for cleaner, healthier air indoors.

In 1973-74 the United States faced a national energy crisis.  In order preserve energy and lower costs, hermetically sealing buildings quickly became the norm.  As well as buildings being sealed air tight, fuel consumption was further reduced when people began receiving tax deductions for adding additional insulation to their homes.  While these changes to the building industry made indoor heating and cooling more efficient, it also lead to some unfortunate consequences.  Harmful chemicals and gases found in the air inside are now completely sealed from the outside world with nowhere to disperse.  Trapping these gases inside means that individual people, families, children and pets are suffering dangerous side effects from breathing in such fumes. With people spending up to 9/10ths of their lives indoors, the repercussions can be tragic.

Harmful Potential Effects

Many health problems have been associated with indoor air pollution.  While the exact effects of indoor air pollution are still being discovered, scientists are finding more and more evidence to suggest that indoor air pollution is a very dangerous problem.  “Sick building syndrome” is a term that now goes hand in hand with “Indoor air pollution”.  Sick building syndrome describes symptoms that people experience when they live or work in a certain building for extended periods of time.  These symptoms are likely to go away when the individual leaves for a given time.  Common symptoms that have been linked to sick building syndrome include allergies, asthma, sinus irritations and congestion, respiratory congestion, fatigue, headache and nervous system disorders.  The numbers of all of these health conditions has increased steadily over the past 25 years in regions where buildings are hermetically sealed.

Sadly, it is now believed that symptoms related to sick building syndrome may not even be the worst of the health related problems that are caused by indoor air pollution.  Sick building syndrome generally refers to symptoms that can be eliminated under better air quality conditions.  Conditions like ADHD, autism, genetic damage, immune system disorders, memory loss, and lower IQ may not correct themselves simply by changing the environment.  The number of children born with some form of autism has increased ten times over the past ten years, and the number of children with ADHD has increased even more drastically.  Childhood cancer rates in the US has increased more than 20% since the 1970’s.  A quote from Dierdre Imus’ book (pg 41), “Green This!” details the startling repercussions of indoor air pollution:

“Researches at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and the Boston University School of Public Health have linked these steadily increasing cancer rates to various environmental contaminants: car emissions, pesticides, and parents’ exposures to the toxins commonly found in paints and petroleum-based solvents.  Many of these exposures take place before birth—the toxic substance can cross the placenta and damage the developing fetus—or even prior to conception, particularly if parents work in a heavily polluted environment”. 

This explains an increase in birth defects in recent years.  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has also been linked to indoor air pollution.  SIDS occurs for unknown reasons and is always unexpected.  SIDS occurs most commonly in infants between the ages of 2 and 4 months.  Researches now consider one cause of SIDS to be toxins in the air that infants do not yet have immunity to, or that damaged the fetus before birth.  SIDS has also been associated with tobacco smoke, a harmful contributor to indoor air pollution.

Causes

What are the main causes of indoor air pollution?  There are many. Chemical production has increased worldwide at alarming rates over the past 80 years.  Even knowing the dangers, our government does practically nothing to restrict use and production of these chemicals.  Complete health information is only available for  a small portion of chemicals used in household products.

Harmful chemicals come from an alarming number of other unexpected places as well.  Furniture, fabric, plastics, and other basic materials found around the home and office emit harmful chemicals into the air.  The use of synthetic materials has had a dramatic effect on air quality.  Synthetic materials emit harmful gases into the air.  Materials like particleboard, teflon, carpet, and wallpaper could all be emitting toxic particles.  Cleaning products, soaps, adhesives, cosmetics, computer printers, nail polish, paints, paper towels, and dry cleaned clothing are a small sample of common household products that contribute to indoor air pollution.  These products and materials give off a wide range of dangerous chemicals including formaldehyde, xylene, benzene, ammonia, acetate and the list goes on and on.

Solutions

What can a person do to protect themselves and their family, friends and pets from the detrimental effects of indoor air pollution?  Fortunately, there are a number of steps that can be taken to help improve the air quality around the home and workplace.  Increasing ventilation, buying all natural and or using home made cleaning products, using air filters, and keeping plants around, are all positive steps in the direction toward a healthier, less polluted indoor environment.  Some of these options may take time, discipline and research.  But the difference taking these actions could make in people’s overall health and wellbeing is well worth the effort.

One of the simplest things that can be done to improve indoor air quality is also one of the most important.  It’s easy; open a window.  Ventilation is crucial for both human comfort and health.  Today’s well-sealed buildings trap air inside.  By opening a window, stale air that is filled with pollutants has a chance to disperse into the atmosphere outdoors, and in turn, fresh air is cycled in.  The easiest way to eliminate the harmful particles given off by your furniture, and household products is simply not to trap them inside!

Unfortunately, depending on where an occupant resides, opening a window may not be an option for extended periods of time in extreme cold and severe weather conditions.  Don’t lose hope.  There are other things that can be done.  Some of the highest contributors to indoor air pollution are everyday cleaning products.  Instead of running to the store to buy conventional dishwashing detergents, wet Swiffer mops, and Febreeze odor eliminators, consider using more natural products.  In today’s consumer driven society it is easy to run to the drug store or grocery store when you need these products.  People generally don’t give much thought to what is actually in the product.  All natural cleaning products are out there, but can be difficult to find, and costly. Consumers should be aware that just because a product says “all natural” does not always mean that it contains no harmful chemicals. There is another option.  Cleaning products can be made at home out of harmless ingredients that work as well as many of the products you find in the stores.  Vinegar, liquid castile soap and baking soda are excellent examples of ingredients that are virtually harmless, but mixed with a few other safe ingredients can make fantastic cleaning products.  Anyone interested in making their own cleaning products to better the air quality in their home or workplace should read the books “Green This”, by Deirdre Imus and “Clean House, Clean Planet”, by Karen Logan.  Both books offer easy solutions for homemade remedies to replace the harmful products that most people use today.

Nowadays people are turning to furniture made of particleboard rather than wood, and plastics rather than glass and metal.  These options tend to be more affordable, lighter in weight, and easier to come by.  But the economical solution is not always the healthy solution.  Unfortunately, synthetics give off considerable amounts of harmful chemicals.  Keeping fewer synthetic materials around the home and workplace will help lead to better air quality.

Many people today are turning to air purifiers to clean their air.  These machines do help some, but only minimally. Air purifiers help to remove dust and lint from the air more than they are able to remove harmful chemicals.  There is however, a better, natural air purifier that works better than any product developed by man at purifying the air.  Plants.  Plants are the most important thing on our planet for sustaining the balance of life.  This fact is no different indoors from out.  By keeping plants in the home and workplace, people are making huge improvements in the quality of the air that they breathe.  Through the process of photosynthesis, plants naturally breathe in harmful gases and convert those harmful gases into oxygen, which will help the quality of human’s ability to breathe.

All plants are beneficial toward cleaner air.  However, some plants are better at eliminating certain chemicals from the air than others.  For example, a tulip can be very good for removing ammonia from the air, but not as successful at eliminating xylene and toluene.  Other plants, like the Peace Lilly and the Dumb Cane are exceptional at cleaning numerous gases from the air.  For more information on how individual species of plants effect air quality indoors, read Dr. B.C. Wolverton’s excellent book, “How to Grow Fresh Air”.  Taking care of plants can be a difficult process, but it can also be a rewarding one.  Caring for plants requires research and patience.  For people who are not good at remembering to water plants on a regular basis, there are low maintenance, easy to care for options.  Some of the lower maintenance plants are actually some of the most successful at eliminating harmful gases from the air.

Sources and Additional Recommended Reading

Imus, Deirdre. Green This. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Logan, Karen. Clean House, Clean Planet. New York City: Pocket Books, 1997.

Wolverton, Dr. B.c. How to Grow Fresh Air. New York City: Penguin Books, 1997.

Wolverton, Dr. B.c. "Sources of Chemical Emissions." 15 Nov.-Dec. 2007 <http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/chem.htm>.

http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/ - An excellent website for information on Indoor Air Pollution and Clean Water from a NASA researcher.

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ - Useful information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Indoor Air Pollution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_air_quality - wikipedia gives details of specific allergens and harmful chemicals which could be effecting air quality and "greener design".