Almost until now, when we talked about “air pollution”, we associated this term with outdoor contamination because vehicle emissions, stationary power generation and other industrial and agricultural emissions.
However, in the last years and largely due to the global impact of COVID-19 pandemic, we are more aware that the air we breathe indoors can also be polluted and that this can have serious consequences for our health. Because of the pandemic, the importance of maintaining good indoor air quality has increased.
Indoor air quality concerns the quality of the air in and around buildings and structures, as it affects the health and well-being of the occupants of buildings. In other words, indoor air quality determines how pollutants, temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors affect the health and well-being of people temporarily or permanently occupying an enclosed space.
Inadequate indoor air quality due to the presence of common pollutants can lead to significant effects on human health, which can be divided into:
- Immediate effects, which may appear after a single exposure or several repeated exposures to a contaminant and which may vary considerably from one person to another, depending on age or the existence of previous illnesses. These effects may include headache, dizziness, fatigue, or irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. In addition, they can be aggravated and worsen, leading to more severe symptoms, such as asthma.
- Late effects, which may appear even several years after exposure has occurred and/or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects are, for example, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as cognitive effects or cancer.
Furthermore, these effects are more severe in some vulnerable groups. In fact, children, older people, people with pre-existing diseases and people of low socioeconomic status are often exposed to higher levels of indoor pollutants.
Research studies suggest that indoor air pollutant concentrations are increasing due to the increasing use of chemicals in household products, inadequate ventilation, warming temperatures and rising humidity, among other factors. These studies have also revealed that human indoor activities, such as smoking, burning solid fuels, cooking, and cleaning; vapors from building materials; and biological pollutants, such as molds, viruses or allergens are potential sources of indoor air pollution.
Since many of these sources come from daily indoor activities, we can adopt some specific measures to improve the quality of the indoor air we breathe and consequently, decrease or minimize the risk of developing poor indoor air quality-related diseases. These measures focus primarily on controlling the source of contamination, maintaining good ventilation and reinforcing air filtration and disinfection systems.
Moreover, knowing and controlling the most common indoor pollutants as well as their effects on health are key tools to reduce the risk of health problems related to poor indoor air quality.
And this is exactly where the K-HEALTHinAIR project arises. K-HEALTHinAIR aims to increase knowledge about chemical and biological indoor air pollutants that affect human health, and to provide affordable measures for more accurate monitoring and improvement of indoor air quality.
Thorough research activities based on an extensive monitoring campaign of chemical and biological indoor air pollutants, K-HEALTHinAIR identifies the determinants, their sources and potential health risks of indoor air quality from data collected through real-world scenarios, public health surveillance and particularly vulnerable groups such as high-risk patients, older people and children. For that, nine representative scenarios have been selected within 5 study pilots in Europe where multidisciplinary data collection is being carried out.
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It is essential to prioritise indoor air quality to preserve our health and well-being in any indoor environment, a vital lesson the pandemic taught us.
