When we hear the word “pollution”, the fumes from the exhaust pipes and the sinister “beret” that hangs over large cities automatically come to mind. But the miasmas that circulate inside buildings are much worse: it is estimated that around 4.3 million people die each year as a result of indoor pollution, while poor air quality in cities is would charge something less: 3.7 million.
The causes of such alarming figures must be sought not only in the deficiencies of the so-called “smart buildings” or the bacteria, chemical compounds, fungi and pathogenic viruses that infest the interior of the buildings (where we spend 90% of the time), but also in the use of charcoal and wood for cooking, still very widespread in Third World countries.
“Often times, the solution is as simple as opening the windows, but the problem would improve if the buildings had small, cheap and energy-efficient sensors that inform families or workers of the situation in real time. This way we could know when and where pollution levels increase and act accordingly ”, says Prashant Kumar, from the University of Surrey (United Kingdom), co-author of an international study published in the journal Science of Total Environment .
Other recent research led by Kumar also points out the importance of the location of buildings. As can be read in his work, this time published in the journal Enviromental Pollution , an important risk factor is traffic intersections , where the concentrations of particles harmful to health double even though there are no major traffic jams. This insane exposure would mainly affect the occupants of the ground floors, at street level, of the buildings.
