Healthiness and Microclimate

Improving Indoor Air Quality For A Better Future

December 14, 2023

Indoor Air Quality: The Issue Of Indoor Pollution

Today’s modern society confines us to indoor environments much more than what happened in the past. An average individual spends 80-90% of their time indoors, meaning that our quality of life is strictly related to the quality of that specific environment. In particular, air quality must be optimal: contrary to popular belief, pollution generates indoors too, threating people’s health and safety. Improving indoor air quality is of major importance to create safe spaces where to live and work.

Health Issues Caused By Indoor Pollution

As previously said, most of our lives are concentrated in indoor environments: home and office, but also schools, gyms, hospitals, supermarkets, cinemas and more, are all confined spaces that have an impact on our well-being. The WHO estimated that 3.2 million people died in 2020 due to household air pollution (including many children) and that the combined effects of outdoor and indoor pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually.

Speaking about household air pollution, a great source of air contamination originates from kitchens: open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass and coal, which pose threats to human health. Another point is that not all homes own a ventilation system, but they are present in most indoor places, like offices and all the others we mentioned before. HVAC systems, when not correctly managed from a hygienic point of view, can become a great source of indoor contamination too. Let’s just think about the Covid-19 pandemic and all the people who got ill in hospitals because the virus diffused through air ducts. Click on the buttons below to discover more about the illnesses linked to bad HVAC hygiene and indoor pollution!

How To Improve Indoor Air Quality

Improving indoor air quality is not an option: it’s one of the key elements to have a healthy life. Here is some advice on how to breathe clean air at home, at work and in all confined spaces.

Clean air at home

-Make sure you have less indoor contamination sources as possible, for example, adjust your gas stoves to decrease the amount of emissions;
-if possible, open doors and windows to get fresh air inside your home;

-newly constructed buildings often have a ventilation system that helps filtering air for it to be always clean, especially when outdoor air is very polluted and opening windows would worsen the issue.

How to avoid workplace and other indoor environments’ air pollution

Most indoor environments, such as offices, warehouses, supermarkets, clinics, and others, have HVAC systems. This is a positive factor, but it’s important to consider that air systems can become contaminated with time, or even just after installation. For this reason, regular inspections are necessary, and if needed, the HVAC system should be sanitized to prevent the spread of dangerous contaminants into the air. To optimize these procedures, systems like Remotair exist, utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to constantly monitor HVAC systems and predict when sanitization will be required.