Indoor Air Quality
Air Pollution occurs when a substance that has harmful or poisonous effects contaminates the air. It is a serious danger to the environment, but also a major public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 7 million people died as a result of Air Pollution exposure in 2012, namely 1 in 8 deaths worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases are the main causes of these deaths.
Many people when they think of Air Pollution, cities, car emissions, chemicals from factories, smog come across their mind. They think of Outdoor Air Pollution. However, what about the air within or around our homes?
WHO estimates that Indoor Air Pollution accounted for 4.3 million deaths compared to 3.7 million deaths for Outdoor Air Pollution. Furthermore, as indicated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), many organic pollutants indoors are 2 to 5 times more concentrate than outdoors regardless of the geographic location, whether in rural or highly industrial areas. These concentrations can possibly reach 1000 times higher after certain activities such as paint stripping. In addition to the higher concentration, a person spends about 90% of their time indoors; therefore, Indoor Air Pollution is just as important as Outdoor Air Pollution.
Sources of Indoor Air Pollution, Health Effects, and Solutions
Indoor Air Pollution comes from many sources. Besides the Outdoor Air Pollution making its way indoors, home furnishings, building materials, cleaning products and other lifestyle habits are sources of pollution. Depending on the type of pollutants, their concentrations, the length of exposure, and the person being exposed, the health effects may be experienced in a short or a long term, and can be minor like headaches, eye, nose, and throat irritation, or severe like lung disease, heart disease, or cancer. Hopefully, as mentioned by the WHO, intervening on the source of pollution, the living environment, and the user behavior can cut Indoor Air Pollution.
Some common indoor air pollutants are:
-Asbestos is a microscopic fiber. It is found in heat-resistant fabrics, packaging, or building materials, especially in homes built before 1980. When inhaled, asbestos can cause cancer or other respiratory
Another big problem in polluting places and things is air pollution which can make air foggy, unbreathable, and toxic. According to “34 Facts about Pollution”, the text states breathing the air in Mumbai, India, for just one day is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes. One of the things that can cause air pollution is releasing factory fuels and fossil fuels into the air. We also cause it from burning certain things like plastic, chemicals, and other
When the air becomes polluted, it is because air pollutants have contaminated it. Burlington, New Jersey where I live is not exception to air pollution. These pollutants are emitted into the air from the car we drive, the factories that manufactured food we eat, clothes we wear, etc. The air also gets polluted from the activities we are involved with in our homes, including the various kinds of products we used at home, like air conditioners, heaters, etc (“NJDEP”, n.d.).
When people think about air pollution, the things that come to their mind are smog, acid rain, and other forms of outdoor air pollution. Air Pollution is not a new topic. It is a problem that we have noticed since the industrial revolution, when trees, houses and cars were covered in soot from the factories. Every year, chemical substances present in the air within buildings affect the healths of thousands of people. The definition of air pollution is "The presence in the atmosphere of one or more contaminants as is injurious, or tends to be injurious, to human health or welfare, animal or plantlife."Ozone, a gas, is a major part of air pollution in cities. When ozone forms air pollution, it's also called smog.
Indoor air pollution can occur in the gaseous form (gases and vapors) or as airborne dusts, sprays, fumes, smokes, and mists, Airborne dusts are of major concern because they are related to the widespread occupational lung diseases as well as intoxications such as lead poisoning
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. This occurs when the airflow is obstructed. Asthma affects people of both genders, all races and age. Asthma existed in ancient Egypt times and possibly even before that. (Crosta, 2000, p. 2) Asthma had been on the decline up until 2001 (Asthma In The U.S., 2011). In 2001, one out of every fourteen people had asthma. Since then asthma has been on a gradual incline. In 2009, one in every 12 people now had asthma (Asthma Statistics, 2013). This means 25 million people in the United States are living with asthma. More and more people are dying every day because of asthma. Scientists are trying to figure out why asthma has been increasing in the
Air pollution is one the effect of the environment problem that human is faced now a day. An air pollutant is the mixture of solid or fine particle and gases that are suspended in the air usually caused by human activities, and their inhaling is harmful to human body [1]. Recently in December 2015, the air quality in the city of Beijing in China was unhealthy that forced schools to close, outdoor constructions to halt and to reduce car traffics [2]. In New York City is not also immune to this scourge. According to New York Environmental Protection, air pollution in New York City is significantly environmental threat despite many improvements [3]. This research project investigates the indoor air quality at Hostos Community College. The objective
Air pollution has many different categories and each is harmful in their own way. Almost every kind of air pollution is caused by these simple things, Energy use, fossil fuels, technology, and vehicles.
At the first, what is air pollution? The air pollution is contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. We’ve got many pollutants, which cause air pollution. Like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, lead and many more. All of these pollutants can cause lot of illnesses, like cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve damage, long-term injury to the
Atmospheric pollution, because the sources of pollutants, nature, the different concentration and duration, the pollution area of meteorological conditions, the difference of geographical environment factors, such as, or even a person's age, health, the harm of per capita will produce different. The effects of air pollution on the human body, first of all, are not comfortable, then there is an irreversible physiological reaction, and then there is a further symptom of acute harm. The harm of air pollution can be divided into three kinds: acute poisoning, chronic poisoning and cancer. Atmospheric pollutants concentration is low, does not usually acute poisoning caused by the human body, but in some special conditions, such as
According to the saying by Eddie Johnson, we can say that indoor air pollution is by far the biggest environmental problem in the world. Also, while looking at the fact 20% up to 10% of the outdoor air pollution can make its way inside the average home [1], so we can surely say that every year many people would have die due to the exposure to household air pollution caused by indoor open fire.
Air pollution is an unavoidable mixture of substances that we breathe in. There is no way to escape air pollution nowadays since it can be encountered indoors as well as outdoors. The type of pollution we breathe in can be divided between indoor and outdoor by the different types of air pollution that are released in these environments. Fine particles such as burning fossil fuels (such that come from traffic and energy production), tobacco smoke, and chemical vapors are found in the air breathed in from outdoors, while solvents (such as found in household cleaners and products), mold, and carbon monoxide are sadly breathed in from within homes and businesses on a daily basis.
shown that indoor air pollution has serious consequences for health, especially in women and children.
Most people have heard that air pollution is bad for the planet. That pollutants we put in the air are causing this thing called “Global Warming.” The information that sometimes gets left out is the impact of ambient air pollution to the health of humans. Ambient air pollution is outdoor pollution originating from industries, cars, and trucks. These pollutants can wreak havoc on the human respiratory system (Ambient air pollution). Respiratory conditions such as asthma, acute bronchitis, COPD, and pneumonia have been on the rise as ambient air pollutions have climbed. Laws have been introduced to help regulate the amount of pollutants produced, but they still are produced. The levels of these dangerous compounds even though regulated are still too high.
Although good indoor air quality is critical to human health, there are still 4.3 million premature deaths per year from related illnesses [4]. Major sources of indoor pollution include cigarette/tobacco smoke, biological contaminants such as molds, insects and dander, by-products of combustion from stoves and furnaces, formaldehydes and other volatile organic compounds, asbestos and radon [2]. Luckily, eradication of these pollutants can occur through several methods. A major requirement to improve poor indoor air quality is first controlling the source of pollution [2]. Following this, both improving ventilation and air cleaning should aid in suppression of indoor pollutants [2]. Maintenance of indoor air quality is easy once identified, but ambient air quality is not so easy. Ambient air quality refers to the state of the air outdoors [2]. Good ambient air quality is necessary for the maintenance of essentially every living organism [2]. There is an abundance of negative environmental and human health effects that occur from poor ambient air quality [5]. Three factors greatly influence air pollution; emission sources, weather conditions, and topography [6]. Emission sources are the most influential, as they control release of particular pollutants in high volumes [6].
Air pollution isn't just outside - the air inside buildings can also be polluted and affect your health. It can be a from minor upper respiratory irritation to chronic respiratory and heart disease, lung cancer, mild respiratory infections in children and chronic bronchitis in adults. Aggravating pre-existing heart and lung disease, or asthmatic attacks are easier to effect those who are more exposed and past the beginning stages. In addition, short- and long-term exposures have also been categorized with premature mortality and reduced life expectancy.