Indoor air pollution: how it affects us and tips to prevent it

Mums Tips

Fitness & Health

Published on Tuesday, 23 July 2019 11:03

Last Updated on 22 July 2019

Carolina Kon

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The terms indoor air quality and indoor air pollution seem to come up frequently these days. When we mention the word pollution we immediately think of the outside world, cars, aeroplanes, factories and so on. What does bring pollution into your home? Anything from washing up liquids, deodorants, indoor sprays, candles and many more in-house objects are the key causes of indoor air pollution.

Chemicals may make your house shine and smell good but if you look at the ingredients used to produce them, you may find that these same ingredients may cause harmful factors to adults and children’ wellbeing, which may take time to show on their body and cause illnesses such as asthma, poor skin conditions and allergies ion the future.

A full report on the effects of indoor air quality on children will be published on 29 November 2019 to shed more light into this issue. 76% of people would find more public information campaigns on air pollution helpful. Research also shows that ONLY 28% of people realise they could be exposed to air pollution in their homes and 71% perceive it as a problem on city streets. In my view, the small percentage is quite alarming.

What do we know? We spend more time indoor than outdoor 92% on a weekly basis.

Not only we have indoor air pollution due to some chemicals we have in our own home, but the polluted air also comes inside from outside. With 3000 new chemicals coming into our hones every year, we don’t know how they can affect our living space. Cooking, in particular, is an area we need to pay attention to.

What are the sources of indoor air pollutants?

Volatile organic chemicals are a dangerous form of pollution found in our homes. They originate from cleaning products, solvents and fire- retardant fabrics, insulation materials. The regulations are not good enough in terms of ventilation. We don’t allow our houses to ventilate enough.

One of the effects of indoor air pollution on the respiratory system is asthma. Research has showed us that:

Around 5.4 million people have been diagnosed with asthma

• One in every five households includes someone with the condition

• Highest rates of asthma in Europe

• Number of people diagnosed with COPD has jumped by 27% in a decade

• People dying from asthma has leapt by more than 20% in five years.

A recent research by Puressentiel with parents whose child has asthma, respiratory problems or allergies found that 69% were aware of outdoor pollution, 33% were very worried about it, 49% had heard of indoor pollution and 26% had serious concerns about poor air quality indoors.

Indoor air pollution also causes chronic respiratory or cardiovascular disease. This research shows that Particulate matter (PM) reduces life expectancy by 8 months averaged over whole UK population and that children have high breathing rates, the elderly spend more time indoors, health inequalities – poorer people/urban areas more affected.

Prevention and avoidance are two factors which may help with indoor air pollution and the study has identified the lack of useful resources in our houses and helps us with their products. For example it’s helpful to know that essential oils are anti-inflammatory and can help instead of using steroids.

A team of London Mums’ testers have tried lots of Puressentiel products over time and have benefited from their anti-infective, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory effect. We have also noticed that the nasal spray, for example, is great to naturally loosen mucus and to decongest the respiratory tract.

The Puressentiel Balm’s efficacy was confirmed in a 28-day trial:

• 96% of volunteers reported the balm had a clearing effect

• 88%confirmed it brought respiratory comfort

• 88%noted it helped them breathe more easily.

We should really think more about indoor air quality and how to improve our life and be able to control it by finding ways to preventing indoor air pollution as much as possible for the whole family’s sake.