Improve your quality of life with cleaner indoor air

Tom Faggionato

Chief Operating Officer, Airlite

In the UK, we spend on average 90% of our time indoors, where air pollution is typically 2-5x worse than outdoors.

After you read this article, the first thing you should do is open a window.

The main reason air quality is worse indoors is poor ventilation. So, while air pollution is at its lowest level in a decade, you should make the most of it and get some good clean air flowing through your home.

Air pollution affects us all, slowly but surely degrading our respiratory system, and reducing our ability to fight infection and illness.

800,000 deaths per year in Europe are caused by air pollution – more than smoking.

In the short-term, poor air quality results in reduced energy levels, nasal congestion, headaches and dizziness and is the leading cause of the rapid rise in asthma rates.

800,000 deaths per year in Europe are caused by air pollution – more than smoking.

Children’s bedrooms often have the poorest air quality

Shockingly, research has shown the worst air quality in the home is usually found in children’s bedrooms.

A combination of cleaning products, new furniture, fresh paint and plastic toys, release potentially damaging toxins into the air, to be breathed in by the most vulnerable and precious members of our families.

Importantly, schools are also now trying to improve their indoor air. A central London school with extremely poor air quality found that by painting a classroom with air purifying paint it had a 95% lower NO² concentration than the classroom next door.

Poor air quality will return after lockdown

As we emerge from lockdown, many of us will treasure memories of skies blissfully free from aeroplanes, the dawn chorus uninterrupted by the roar of cars and walks in noticeably fresher and cleaner air.

Sadly, as already seen in China, the high levels of air pollution will return.

Legislation and responsible corporations have begun the seismic shift needed to clean the atmosphere. Meanwhile, we must look at limiting indoor sources of air pollution and start employing ways of actively cleaning the air in our homes and workplaces.

Opening the windows will soon not be an attractive option so active air purification, especially for the most vulnerable, is critical.

NASA has published a list of the best air cleaning plants, there are a multitude of electric air purifiers on the market and now even the possibility of having air purifying paint on your walls.