Indoor Air Pollution - Biggest Health Hazard
Posted on January 31 2018
With 2.51 million deaths in 2015, India has been ranked No.1 in pollution-related deaths - according to a report by The Lancet Commission on pollution and health.
After child and maternal malnutrition, which was India’s leading risk factor for health loss in 2016, causing 14.6 percent of the country’s total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), air pollution was the second leading risk factor in India as a whole.
30% premature deaths in India due to air pollution - CSE Report
The Enemy in your House
Remaining indoors does not ensure safety from pollution. Sources of pollution exist in-house too which affect the health of homemakers. We usually think of air pollution as being outdoors, but the air in your house or office could also be polluted. We spend about 85%of our time indoors. Risks to health are greater due to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors
Link with Diseases
The common diseases that result from indoor pollution are dryness or irritation of eyes, nose, respiratory tract and throat, dizziness, fatigue, headache, irritability, lethargy and nausea, allergies, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and Legionnaires’ disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive
Experts suggest the composition of indoor air is different from outside. Unlike air quality outside that is measured on the basis of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide levels; air quality inside the house is determined by volatile organic compounds (from paints), bio-aerosols, nitrous oxides (from cooking gas) and so on.
You may not realise it, but the air inside your house may be much worse than the air outside with CO2 and PM 2.5 levels peaking at night and early morning.