The Answer
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How clean the air is inside your home might be top of mind after a wildfire or other outdoor air-pollution event. But year-round, everyone can benefit from breathing cleaner air indoors. Poor indoor air quality may contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impacts, cancers, and allergies, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Americans spend an average of 90% of their time inside, said Dr. Juanita Mora, a physician at the Chicago Allergy Center and spokesperson for the American Lung Association. Indoors, people are exposed to chemicals and particulates, as well as common irritants like dust mites, pet dander, and mold spores that can trigger allergies and asthma.
Improving indoor air quality is especially important for members of vulnerable groups, including infants, children, older adults, or those who have existing respiratory issues. You also might face compounded health effects from poor indoor air quality if you're a smoker or live with one, or if you are exposed regularly to outdoor air pollution, said Dr. Enid Rose Neptune, a professor of pulmonology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Taking a few routine and seasonal steps can go a long way toward managing allergy symptoms and reducing your exposure to harmful chemicals, heavy metals, and microplastics. Try even a few of the steps we outline below, and you and your housemates can breathe more easily right away and enjoy long-term benefits, too.
Cut off the source
This is the most effective way to improve your home's air quality, according to the EPA. Some sources of indoor air pollution, such as indoor smoking and the use of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, are simpler to eliminate.
Others, such as building materials and household furnishings, may be difficult or impossible to remove.
Be sure to maintain perspective: "We can only control what we can control," said Nsilo Berry, a researcher at the Healthy Building Network. Here are a few steps to control sources of indoor air pollution:
Flush your air
Ventilation and filtration may make sense at different times or can work in tandem. Bringing in outdoor air flushes out trapped pollutants from your home, while air filtration removes pollutants and particulates that are already inside.
Clean surfaces regularly
Dust, ash, pollen, and other particulates can get kicked back into the air through people's movements, fans, and other activities. So although it's a drag, regularly cleaning -- but not dry-dusting -- helps maintain indoor air quality and might also help reduce your exposure to microplastics.
Shop savvy
Researchers are learning more and more about the potential health impacts of the stuff people bring into their homes or use on their bodies. Cleaning products, personal-care products, candles, fragrances, and other routine purchases can be sources of indoor air pollution.
For many shoppers, it's impractical to try to avoid worrisome chemicals -- and for everyone, avoiding them entirely is impossible. But it may make sense for those in high-risk groups to take a more cautious approach. Reducing even some of the known sources of VOCs and SVOCs in the stuff you use daily could improve your indoor air overall and in the long run. Here are some quick ways to start:
Keep in mind that the health impacts of the air you breathe are cumulative and include not just the air in your home but also outdoors, at your place of work, and at school. Everyone can take steps to breathe better inside, but the reasons that people need to do so -- including the effects of climate change and the ubiquity of certain chemicals in products -- won't improve without large-scale changes.