What are common health effects of indoor air pollution?
Health effects from indoor air pollutants may be experienced soon after exposure or, possibly, years later. Immediate effects may show up after a single exposure or repeated exposures. These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Such immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating the persons exposure to the source of the pollution, if it can be identified. Symptoms of some diseases, including asthma, hypersensivity pneumonitis, and humidifier fever, may also show up soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants. RADON Health Effects: No immediate symptoms. Estimated to contribute to between 7,000 and 30,000 lung cancer deaths each year. Smokers are at higher risk of developing radon-induced lung cancer. CARBON MONOXIDE Health Effects: At low concentrations, fatigue in health people and chest pain in people with heart disease. At higher concentrations, impaired vision and coordinati
