The indoor air quality in our homes can be worse than we think – and it could be leading to a wide variety of health problems. Thanks in part to super-efficient modern homes, we may be living in homes filled with volatile organic chemicals such as formaldehyde and benzene that could be having a dangerous long-term impact on our health.
An expert on indoor air quality, Professor Colbeck explains that both outdoor and indoor air need to be considered when evaluating air quality indoors. He says outdoor air pollution in the present day mostly involves nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from traffic emissions.
Unfortunately, while outdoor air pollution is regularly discussed, indoor air pollution gets little attention. This is despite the fact that, as Dawson points out, “Indoor air pollution can be up to five times worse than outside air pollution.”