What is good indoor air?

From the very first moment in life we need air. We start life by taking a deep breath of air and from that very moment we are dependent on it – for life, health and wellbeing. In a series of blogposts we want to put light on indoor air, and why we all should care about the quality of it. So, let’s start there, why should we care about our indoor air quality?

Clean air is the foundation for life, it keeps you healthy, and makes you feel, perform and sleep better. Nowadays, those of us living in the western countries spend more than 90% of our time indoors. That equals 21.6 hours each day, and on average 628 992 hours in a lifetime. We breathe around 6 liters of air per minute when we rest, and around 100 liters when we work out. This makes you realize the vast amount of air that goes through our bodies in a lifetime. At the same time, indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outside air.

That begs the question, what constitutes good air? And how do we know if the air we breathe is good or bad? We have identified the level of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, relative humidity, volatile organic compounds as well as the temperature in a room as key factors. Thanks to digitisation and sensor technology we can now measure most of these different parameters in indoor environments and visualise the invisible.

In our upcoming posts we will talk more about each of these measurable parameters – how they affect us, preferred levels and what to think about.

Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8672270/
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_03_1278
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/improving-your-indoor-environment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818249/