By Defne
’23
With many initiatives to improve the air quality of London, air quality in the city centre has been increasing. However, we need to keep in mind that this applies to the outdoors, which are regulated. The quality of our indoor air is not monitored as heavily, so we may actually be inhaling more pollutants than we think! According to Nature, over 3 million people around the world died of indoor air pollution in 2020 alone.
Here’s a list of some areas we expose ourselves to indoor air pollution and what to do about it:
- Inside cars
When you are sitting in a car, you are continually exposed to the pollutants being released by the car as well as the vehicles around you. This is even worse when you are stuck in a traffic jam! Vehicle exhausts release toxic carbon monoxide as well as nitrogen oxides which irritate your lungs and eyes – not good.
It might be a good idea to limit car travel, especially on days where there is a lot of traffic. Instead you can opt to cycle or walk using routes away from the busy roads of London. The farther you are from the traffic, the better.
- The London Underground
You do not need to be very observant to realise that the tube air is more polluted than the rest of London. Studies have consistently found that the London Underground has elevated levels of particulate matter, most of which are rich in iron and other metals from the brakes grinding on the rails. Professor Steven Holgate states that these fine metal particles can cause lung inflammation.
Moreover, according to Cambridge Earth Scientist Hassan Sheikh many pollutants in the underground are too small to be detected using traditional air monitoring methods, so the problem is probably even worse than we think!
Some proposed solutions include magnetic ventilation filters, as many of the pollutants are magnetic in nature. Another solution is putting screen doors between the platform and the rails – already implemented in certain underground stations such as Waterloo. But these solutions are not strategies that we can implement ourselves.
According to MRC Centre for Environmental Health research fellow David Green, underground lines that are deeper are more polluted. So, when planning your route, try to choose lines that are closer to ground level and are newer, as well as platforms that have screen-doors between you and the train.
- Gas stoves
Gas stoves don’t only increase the concentration of nitrous oxides (as all other heating appliances do) which irritate your lungs but they also release carbon monoxide, particulate matter and formaldehyde. And this is only when they are lit. Increasingly more research is finding that gas stoves continue emitting toxic compounds such as benzene (a carcinogen) even when they are not in use. Seth Shonkoff from UC Berkeley warns that having a gas stove in your house can cause benzene levels equivalent to having a smoker in your house.
So, it is better for your health to use electric stoves. If you have a gas stove, try to ventilate your kitchen often, and definitely turn on the fan when you are cooking, even if the process doesn’t appear to create a lot of fumes.
Sources
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00338-0
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/london-underground-air-pollution/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/15/gas-stoves-pollution-alternatives
The Halcyonite 
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