Indoor Air Quality Concerns
It is fast becoming apparent that indoor air is potentially more harmful than outdoor air.
"the air in 19 out of 20 homes tested was considerably more polluted than the outside air"
Yale University 1976.
"the presence of as many as 150 different chemicals indoors compared to 10 or less outside"
U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission 1984.
"concentrations of dangerous pollutants in indoor air which was as much as 70 times that of the outside" U.S Environmental Protection Agency 1985.
"A 1984 World Health Organisation Committee report suggested that up to 30% of new and remodelled buildings worldwide may be the subject of excessive complaints related to indoor air quality" (WHO Indoor Air Facts #4 1991)
"The EPA and its Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. 80 to 90% of most peoples exposure to pesticides occurs indoors." U.S Environmental Protection Agency 1999.
"Occupants of new Australian homes may be exposed to up to 20 times the maximum allowable limits of indoor air toxics an Australian first study has found." CSIRO media release 2000.
"According to repeated surveys by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, air pollution ranks as the public's number one environmental concern." (Air Toxics Indoor Air Quality 2001)
General air pollution has been considered to be more likely to kill than driving on the road.
CSIRO Built Environment Innovation and Construction Technology. Issue 25; June 2002.
"In Australia 2,400 people die each year from diseases associated with air pollution (the road toll in 2001 was 1756." Dr Peter Manins, leader of the Pollution Program at CSIRO Atmospheric Research
The findings mentioned above should not come as a surprise.
Building Biologists have been talking about this major environmental health hazard since the first studies began to appear, it has been written about many times in popular periodical publications, in daily newspapers, and has been discussed on radio and television.
Inside our homes and buildings we have bombed, sprayed and squirted so many times, we pour different products on and around our buildings for maintenance reasons regularly, we fill our homes with things that "leak" various substances into our air mass continually, we even drench our bodies and clothing in many toxins known to be dangerous to our health just so we ourselves can go around polluting the air mass where ever we go.
All these products we spend so much of our shopping budget on do nothing to feed us and the impression given by advertisers that these product save us time or make us more attractive to the opposite sex are dubious at best.
Our lungs are the direct route for pollutants from the air. Even though we consider them to be internal organs, our lungs are being continually exposed to the same pollutants as our hair and skin. When your hair and skin feel grimy or dusty, so to are our lungs.
With every breath we take we are ingesting into our body a soup of external substances; dust, mould and pollen, bacteria and viruses, toxins from motor vehicles and factories, fumes and solvents from almost every man made product, in fact such a cocktail of substances that no one in the entire world actually has any idea as to the possible side effects that could be likely from such an overload of chemicals, solvents, organic and inorganic particles. Many are known to cause serious health problems such as lung cancers, respiratory distress, altered intellectual and emotional states and allergic reactions particularly of the respiratory system.
The health effects from all air pollution can be divided into 4 groups:
* Short term / Acute respiratory effects.
* Long term / Chronic respiratory effects.
* Lung Cancer.
* Non respiratory effects.
Acute effects are well established; asthmatic attacks; hyperactive airways; respiratory infections; and reversible changes in lung functions.
The Chronic effects that are currently known fall into 2 groups.
* Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease like chronic bronchitis, emphysema and small airway disease; and changes in the development and aging of the lungs. Lung cancer is directly linked to air pollutants; the argument is about the level of cause. Regardless, air pollution is directly linked to Lung cancer.
* Non-respiratory disease covers lead poisoning including learning disabilities, hyperactivity and kidney damage as well as Leukaemia from Benzene exposure, and heart disease linked to Carbon Monoxide exposure.
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