INGENIOUS

Context

UK residents spend around 90% of their time indoors, yet regulations to address air pollution focus almost solely on outdoor exposure. Indoor air pollution takes many forms, from particulate matter such as dust and soot from wood burners to gases like carbon monoxide from gas stoves. Breathing in these particles and gases are bad for our health and poor indoor air quality has been linked to lung diseases including asthma, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Many of the activities we do in our own homes produce airborne pollutants, including particles and chemicals that can be harmful to our health. We don’t know exactly where all of these pollutants come from, how they interact with each other or where they end up.

Aims and Objectives

INGENIOUS aims help us better understand how the composition and concentration of indoor air pollutants vary and how this exposure affects people in their homes. It will investigate these unknowns and deliver useful interventions to limit exposure. 

The project will focus on homes in the city of Bradford, which, like many other parts of the UK, is affected by poor air quality. Bradford has a multi-ethnic population and high levels of deprivation, with some of the highest childhood illness rates in the UK.

The team will quantify and identify: 

• the composition and concentrations of air pollutants within indoor spaces, such as those from cooking and cleaning
• how air pollutants react chemically and transform over time, including when different air pollutants mix
• how air pollutants from indoor air sources affect outdoor air quality and vice versa
• how different household behaviours affect the production of and exposure to air pollutants and how this affects health outcomes and inequalities
• which behaviour change interventions are most effective at reducing exposure to indoor air pollution
• which recommendations to take forward as policy solutions

News and Updates

  Currently, people spend about 90% of their time indoors, roughly 22 hours a day, which is a big change from previous generations. Given this substantial time spent indoors, it is crucial to prioritise safety within our homes, particularly concerning air pollution risks. However, there are more concerns of the air outdoors and yet, the air inside our homes, where we spend a significant portion of our lives, can harbour a myriad of pollutants that impact our health and well-being. From the fumes emitted by household products and the gases from emissions when cooking meals, the sources of indoor air pollution are as diverse as they are pervasive. Sometimes, the seemingly simple choice of whether to ventilate can significantly impact indoor air quality.

In this brief, the authors on the INGENIOUS project focus on indoor air quality in UK homes. The INGENIOUS project is designed to better understand indoor air quality and how we can take practical steps to improve it. INGENIOUS is led by Professor Nicola Carslaw at the University of York, working with the universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Sheffield, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
and Born in Bradford (BiB) with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) support. The project is exploring the following questions:

• What are the main sources of indoor air pollution and what happens when those
  sources mix inside our homes? What does the quality of the outside air mean for the
  air we breathe in our homes?
• How does poor indoor air quality impact the health of the occupants?
• How well-ventilated are our homes and what does this mean for pollutant levels?
• Can we reduce any risks from poor indoor air quality by improving our understanding
  of indoor air quality and by changing how we behave at home
• What should landlords, builders and architects, local authorities, central government
  and other agencies be doing to improve indoor air quality?

The brief aims to shed light on why addressing indoor air quality should be a paramount concern for everyone.

Read the brief