Clean Air Day 2022

New Delhi, Sep 7 Indoor air quality is a global challenge and has been consistently brewing conversations and concerns. We are increasingly aware of the need to avoid busy roads, switch off idling engines and protect our outdoor environment from pollutants. But we are less aware of the impact that air quality has on us as individuals, not only during the comparatively short periods of time we spend outside, but indoors where we spend 90 per cent of our time.

While we may be willing to take preventive steps towards air pollution, we need to begin with building awareness about the air quality that we are exposed to, whether indoor or outdoor and then decide on action. Thereby, to mark Clean Air Day 2022, Dyson Engineer Muzaffar Izamuddin, from the Environmental Care at Dyson has answered a few frequently asked questions that could help to make educated decisions to reduce air pollution exposure

Can air pollution be invisible?

Yes, but air pollution seems to grab attention when we see smog or haze. We often forget that visible pollution is not the only form of harmful pollution and that invisible air pollution such as nitrogen oxides can exist all year round and can be more or equally deadly.

If there is outdoor pollution outside, is it better to stay indoors?

Home isn't always a safe haven and indoor air pollution can be worse than outdoors. Pollution can be generated indoors through day-to-day activities, enter the house from outside, emit from surfaces and eventually make up a complex cocktail of pollutants. As we increasingly seal our homes to seemingly shut pollution out, in truth, we are maybe shutting it in.

Every day we can breathe in up to 9,000 litres of air1 and spend up to 90 per cent of our time behind closed doors2. Daily household activities such as VOCs