How bad is indoor air pollution, compared to the pollution outside?
TJB: Indoor air pollution can be many times higher than what’s going on outside. If you think about it, our indoor air almost always has to be worse because the outdoor pollution provides the baseline that’s automatically going to be added on to whatever pollution is inside. Your lowest indoor pollution levels can’t be any lower than the levels of pollution outside. OC&PA: But it seems like we hear a lot more about outdoor pollution than we do about indoor. TJB: Yes, that’s probably because most epidemiologic research has focused on outdoor pollution. But, on the other hand, now we’re telling people that indoor air pollution is much more serious a problem. So there’s a little schizophrenia about our handling of indoor pollution. The good news is, we have some control over indoor pollution. We can modify our indoor contributions. OC&PA: What are the major indoor contributors to pollution? TJB: Number one, cigarette smoke. If there’s one thing to change, that would be it because cigarett
