The Hidden Harms of Indoor Air Pollution

The UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, has recently co-written an article in the journal Nature about the urgent need to focus both research and policy on indoor air pollution.

As Whitty and his co-authors say, indoor air pollution receives far less attention as outdoor air pollution, even though it ‘might cause as many deaths globally’. Studies of indoor air, the authors say, ‘have historically been low on funders’ priority lists’.

The sources of pollution the article addresses include particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, radon, VOCs, persistent chemicals — and mould.

Current metrics for assessing indoor air quality, such as using CO2 as a proxy, mean that important sources of pollution go unrecorded. Measuring CO2 ‘works well for assessing emissions linked to people and respiration,’ says Whitty', ‘but says little about the prevaluence of voatiles from solvents or spores from mould’.

The article recommends, among other things, that

• Researchers need to devise, and policy-makers to use, a broad set of metrics for indoor air quality

• Monitoring the indoor environment for pollution should become standard practice

Integrating robust mould analysis into those metrics must therefore become a priority.