How clean is the air in your home?: Research shows it could be more polluted than you think

Local TV

Wood burning stoves, central heating, gas cookers and even air fresheners are some of the biggest pollutants in our homes and could be damaging our health without us even realising. Deodorant and candles could be causing more damage than you’d realise too, so, how can you the air in your home from pollution? Information on that is coming up next.

Transcript

00:00 Pretty much everywhere we looked, the level of indoor air pollution, and particularly

00:08 the level of tiny particulate pollution, so particles smaller than 2.5 micron, much smaller

00:15 than a human hair that can get into the lungs, these particles are present in indoor air

00:21 at levels higher than the World Health Organization's exposure guideline for at least six months

00:29 of the year everywhere we looked.

00:32 According to an air quality report conducted by Dyson, the UK has the worst air pollution

00:37 in homes than outdoors for 11 months of the year. But why exactly is this? Well, some

00:42 innocent candles and sprays could be doing a lot more damage than you originally might

00:46 expect.

00:48 Pollution outside can come in. So you can get pollution from traffic, from industry,

00:53 even things like pollen can come in around windows, through gaps under doors. Any exchange

01:00 of air between indoors and outdoors can be a source.

01:04 But we also have a bunch of unique indoor air sources. So anything you burn will be

01:09 a pollution source. Flames are pretty bad generators of pollution. So cooking, but also

01:15 if you use candles for lighting for the scent, they're going to be sources. Anything you

01:21 spray, so that can be cleaning products, but also personal care products, things like deodorants,

01:28 hairsprays. These can be ways we're bringing pollution into the home. Pets can be pollution

01:35 sources.

01:36 Research showed that household air pollution was responsible for an estimated 3.2 million

01:41 deaths in 2020, with 237,000 of those being for children under five. Manchester had the

01:48 highest indoor air pollution, higher than London and Dublin. Bristol had the lowest

01:53 level of indoor air pollution.

01:54 But would you say household pollution is quite a low priority for homeowners in terms of

02:00 like they would prioritise their cleaning and other things around the house before they

02:04 think about, oh, I need to do something about pollution in the house?

02:07 To some extent, it's because it's invisible. So we're increasingly conscious of the quality

02:13 of what we eat and drink. And we're very aware that that's going into our bodies. So the

02:18 quality of it really matters. But when you think about it, we're taking in air into our

02:23 bodies all the time. The quality of that air matters just as much. Yeah. So there's a few

02:28 things you can do. I would say, be alert to anything you're burning. And if you're going

02:34 to have a flame, be that from a gas hob, candle, whatever it is, just think about the space

02:40 you're in and the opportunities to ventilation. If you can be in a larger, more open area,

02:45 that's a good thing. If there's a extractor fan or a trickle vent you can open, just think

02:50 about how the smoke from that flame is going to exit the room. You can try and be mindful

02:58 when you're spraying things. And we are always going to have to use products that have some

03:02 sort of emissions.

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