Indoor Pollution: It's Worse Than You Think
For many years, we've been hearing about outdoor air pollution: ozone, smog, and industrial pollutants. But there is now growing evidence that indoor air pollution is far worse.
Indoor pollution comes from gases released from building materials, household cleaning products, carpets and upholstery, and many other sources, in the form of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Add to this allergen producers like pets, dust mites, mold, and cockroaches. Modern building techniques can produce very tight houses with minimal leakage for better energy efficiency, but this also traps pollutants, allergens, and humidity inside the house.
The result: indoor air is as much as ten times more polluted than outdoor air. This pollution aggravates allergies, asthma, and pulmonary diseases. Childhood asthma is on the rise, and many kids are on regular medications as a result. Many people cannot get a healthy, restful night of sleep because of respiratory irritation.