Tips for cleaner air at home

The Indoor Air Quality Working Party, funded by King’s Health Partners, has been working to make the findings of the scientific review, The Inside Story: Health effects of indoor air quality on children and young people accessible to children, parents and health practitioners. The report was published in 2020 by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

Top tip sheets for  health practitioners can be found here.

Worksheets for children can be found here.

Cleaner air at home – tips for parents

• Summary information sheet for parents (pdf, 2 pages, 402 KB)

Why is clean indoor air important?

Poor indoor air quality at home is linked to health effects in people of all ages. Associated child related health effects include breathing problems, chest infections, low birth weight, pre-term birth, wheeze, allergies, eczema, skin problems, hyperactivity, inattention, difficulty sleeping, sore eyes and not doing well at school.

The most recent data we have from the Office for National Statistics suggests Children in the UK spend only a little over an hour (68 minutes) of their leisure time per day outside. The remainder is spent indoors.

During lockdown, they are likely to have spent more time indoors, so the indoor environment is even more important. These tips are mostly not specific to coronavirus, but improving indoor air helps to promote good respiratory health.

Buildings are complicated and each home is different. Your priority should be to follow any guidance that was provided with your home. The actions suggested here are options to help guide the choices that are right for your family:

• Avoid bringing pollutants indoors
• Reduce use of products indoors
• Remove pollutants indoors
• Ventilation
• Know how to use and maintain equipment

Avoid bringing pollutants indoors

The most effective way to avoid poor indoor air quality is to avoid pollutants coming into the space.

Cooking

• Avoid burning food.
• If you are replacing appliances, it can reduce NO₂ to choose electrical rather than gas powered appliances.
• Some newer ovens have ‘self-cleaning’ functions; try to stay out of the kitchen if you are using this function.

Moisture

• High humidity is linked to damp and mould.
• Dry clothes outdoors if possible.
• If you are a tenant with persistent damp or mould in your home, contact your landlord or environmental health department.
• If you own your own home, find out what is causing any damp and get defects repaired.

Smoking and vaping

• Do not smoke or vape, or allow others to smoke or vape, in your home.
• E-cigarettes and vaping can cause irritant health effects such as cough and wheeze, especially in asthmatic children. Where nicotine is a vaping ingredient, there are known adverse health effects of exposure. Whilst the long term health effects of are uncertain, it would be sensible to take a precautionary approach and avoid exposing children to vaping and e-cigarettes indoors.

Combustion

• Avoid activities that involve burning indoors, such as burning candles or incense, or burning wood or coal for heat, if you have an alternative heating option.

Outdoor sources

• Control outdoor sources, for example do not use bonfires and report nuisance bonfires to the local council.
• Avoid using ventilation without filtration during periods when the air outside is polluted, for example keep windows closed during rush hour and open them at different times of day.

Reduce use of products indoors

Some sources of pollutants cannot be avoided completely. Instead you can try to reduce their use to reduce the number and quantity of pollutants released indoors.

Cleaning

• Use fewer cleaning products or one ‘multi-purpose’ cleaner to reduce the number of different ingredients or pollutants.
• Use liquid rather than spray products.
• Make sure you remove cleaning products from surfaces completely after cleaning.

Personal care products and cosmetics

• Without clearer labels, it will be hard to know all the different properties of the products in our homes. If available, choose products labelled with clear information about their contents and instructions for use.
• Avoid spray products.
• Reduce the number of personal care and cosmetic products used to avoid them mixing in the air.

DIY

• Try to only redecorate or replace furniture when necessary.
• Increase the ventilation after painting, decorating, or having new furniture and check manufacturer’s guidance on products, for example ‘use in a well-ventilated space’.

Remove pollutants indoors

Some pollutant generating activities are unavoidable indoors. In these circumstances you can take steps to improve the indoor air, often by using ventilation to dilute the pollutant concentrations.

Cleaning

• Regularly clean and vacuum to reduce dust, remove mould spores and reduce food sources for house dust mites.
• Regularly clean high touch surfaces such as door handles to reduce spread of coronavirus and other infections within the home.
• Clean off any visible mould.

Allergen Avoidance

Taking steps to reduce exposure to inhaled allergens (from house dust mites, moulds and pets) is recommended to reduce symptoms and exacerbations. Depending on the allergy, measures which can help include:

• Reducing dust and dampness in the home.
• Reducing items which collect dust such as soft toys and, if possible, replacing carpets with hard flooring.
• Washing bedding and covers (at 60°C every two weeks) or using allergen impermeable covers.
• Avoiding direct exposure to furry pets if the child is sensitised.

Ventilation

Increase ventilation during and after activities that produce pollutants or moisture, especially when using cleaning or personal care products, cooking, bathing, and painting, decorating or buying new furniture. Try to avoid these activities, and hence the need to ventilate, when the outdoor air is polluted (such as at rush hour).

Cooking

Use ventilation in the kitchen when you cook and, if possible, continue to use it for around 10 minutes after cooking. This ventilation could be a cooker hood or extractor fan if you have one or open a window if not.

If you have a cooker hood:

• Use the highest fan setting.
• Cook on the back rings or burners if possible, especially during frying, to help the cooker hood capture as many pollutants as possible.
• Consider using other appliances, such as toasters, under the hood.
• If purchasing a new cooker hood, you should choose one that extends over all the rings or burners, and it should extract the air to outdoors.

Close internal doors during cooking to reduce the spread of pollutants to other rooms. Cover pans with lids and increase ventilation when boiling the kettle to control moisture levels.

Know how to use and maintain equipment

Cleaning

Vacuum cleaning is one of the simplest methods for clearing dust and is particularly important for those who suffer from asthma. It is important that the bag or dust collection chamber retains the dust efficiently and is replaced or emptied regularly.

Ventilation

• Learn how your home is ventilated. Most homes in the UK are naturally ventilated using windows, but some use mechanical ventilation systems to supply air through ducts.
• If your home has a mechanical ventilation system, make sure you know how to use and maintain it.
• Many windows have small, built-in vents; keep these ‘trickle vents’ open if you have them.
• Your bathroom and kitchen may be fitted with an extractor fan or cooker hood. Learn how it works and use it during and after pollutant or moisture generating activities.

Other equipment

If you have persistent damp that is not solved using ventilation, contact your landlord or environmental health department. You can also use a dehumidifier to reduce damp. If you do, empty it regularly to prevent stagnant water from encouraging mould growth.

Some air purifiers and monitors are commercially available. There is wide variation in the performance or air cleaning devices, so we cannot currently provide specific recommendations. Some can be effective at reducing particle concentrations, but some can be a source of pollutants such as ozone. If you do have one it is important to maintain it according to the manufacturer instructions.

A note about humidifiers: humidifiers may be useful to prevent dryness that can irritate some parts of the body. If you are recommended to use a humidifier to alleviate symptoms, be aware that increasing the humidity can cause other problems including increasing formaldehyde emissions from building materials, and an increased likelihood of damp and mould.