Indoor Air Pollution And Indoor Air Quality

Well, I would guess you do spend some time indoor these days. Indoor can be good, a nice temperature, if you have a good air conditioning system, and often relative clean air. Now there are these things in air, which you have indoor and outdoor, but today we talk about indoor. And the thing is, indoor air can be polluted by a lot of things and that is what we will discuss today with our 6 points about indoor air pollution. 

Indoor air pollution

Let us first start with the question, what is indoor air pollution? The answer might be obvious if you would say; unwanted things in you air, but that would be a bit to general. To make a bit more specific indoor air pollution is all about contamination, which can be chemical, biological and physical and of course this type of contamination can influence your health. 

Definition of indoor air pollution

Let us look to the definition of indoor air pollution, which is described as below in one of the better definitions that we found online;

“Indoor air pollution refers to chemical, biological and physical contamination of indoor air. It may result in adverse health effects. In developing countries, the main source of indoor air pollution is biomass smoke which contains suspended particulate matter (5PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

In industrialized countries, in addition to NO2, CO, and formaldehyde, radon, asbestos, mercury, human-made mineral fibres, volatile organic compounds, allergens, tobacco smoke, bacteria and viruses are the main contributors to indoor air pollution.”

Source: https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=1336

Indoor air pollution sources

If we look to some examples of indoor air pollution, then have a look at some examples. A lot smoke can come from burning biomass for heating or cooking. This smoke can contain particles like, NOx, Sulphur components, carbon monoxide and all kinds of aromatic hydrocarbons (better think twice before you start cooking). Other air pollution sources can come from tobacco smoke, bacteria, viruses, dust particles, which can all be in your indoor air.

Indoor air quality testing

With all that pollution you might want to measure the quality of your air. There are various ways to measure the indoor air quality and there are lots of agencies and companies that can measure the content of pollution in air. A good starting point is an official test method like the “ASTM D7297 – 14 Standard Practice for Evaluating Residential Indoor Air Quality Concerns”. This standard practice describes procedures for evaluating indoor air quality (IAQ) concerns in residential buildings.

Indoor air purifying plants

The good news about all this pollution in your house, plants. Plants might give your house a better ambiance, but they also purify the air in your house. Certain plant species have been tested. Plants like the spider plant, dracaena, ficus and Boston fern are all pretty good in taking for example volatile organic components (removal of benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and xylene) out of the air. So, it is not bad to bring flowers or plants for your partner or colleagues they really help in making the indoor air quality better.

Indoor air purification techniques

Next to plants, there are the standard purification techniques that can be used for reduction of indoor air pollution. Think about particulate filters for particle (dust) removal and activated carbon for the removal of volatile organic components. These are all good techniques, but come of course at a certain cost.

We hope you enjoyed the 6 points about indoor air pollution, the good thing is that with some plants and if needed an air filtration system you have fresh air indoor. That said, better to prevent that these components come indoor in the first place as that is the easiest way for fresh clean air.