One Take #1: Ten questions concerning the future of residential indoor air quality and its environmental justice implications

We explore a paper examining the future of residential air quality and its environmental justice implications. This research highlights how poor indoor air quality disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities, creating a "triple jeopardy" of higher exposure, greater health burdens, and limited resources to address the problem.

• Indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air, with pollutants coming from building materials, cleaning products, cooking, and outdoor air infiltration
• We spend 90% of our time indoors, with 70% in our homes, making residential air quality crucial to our overall health
• The environmental justice framework examines who is exposed to pollution and why through five dimensions: distributive, procedural, recognition, capabilities, and epistemic justice
• Social inequalities lead to uneven exposure to poor indoor air quality, with lower socioeconomic groups often facing greater health risks
• Climate change will worsen indoor air quality through higher temperatures, humidity, and changing outdoor pollution patterns
• Net zero policies create tensions between energy efficiency and adequate ventilation for healthy indoor environments
• New technologies like air purifiers may create further inequalities if not accessible to all communities

Clean indoor air for everyone is both a technical and social challenge that requires bringing together researchers, policymakers, and communities to develop equitable solutions. See you next week.

Paper

Lead Author - D Booker

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Air Quality Matters
• 1:12 Paper Overview and Indoor Pollutants
• 2:38 Environmental Justice Framework
• 4:12 Social Inequalities and Air Quality
• 5:13 Climate Change and Future Challenges
• 6:42 Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to Air Quality Matters and One Take One Take, my take on a paper or report on air quality, ventilation or the built environment. One Take in that it's well one take and tries to summarise for you a scientific perspective on something interesting, and in well, 10 minutes or less, because who has the time to read all these amazing documents? Right, this week we're diving into a really important paper that looks at where we're heading with air quality in our homes and, crucially, how this intersects with environmental justice. Asks some tough questions and it's timely, especially given the increased focus on indoor air quality in the UK, specifically following the tragic death of our Bishak. So let's get into it.

Speaker 1: 1:12

So this paper, titled 10 questions concerning the future of residential air quality and its environmental justice implications, takes a broad look at the challenges and inequalities related to air quality in our homes. The authors highlight that we're facing unprecedented changes in our homes. The authors highlight that we're facing unprecedented changes in our residential environments. Think about increased urbanisation, climate change and the drive to make homes more energy efficient. All of this is going to have a knock-on effect on the air we breathe indoors. Now why should we care? Well, as the paper points, air pollution is the leading environmental risk to our health and we spend a huge chunk of our time indoors around 90 percent in fact, with 70 percent of that in our homes. And here's the kicker Indoor air can sometimes be more polluted than the outdoor air. This paper looks at all the nasties we find indoors gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds, as well as particulate matter and biological stuff like mould. These come from a mix of sources, from outdoor pollution creeping in to building materials, cleaning products, cooking and even just living our lives to building materials, cleaning products, cooking and even just living our lives. And it's not just about the presence of these pollutants. It's about who is disproportionately affected. This is where the environmental justice angle comes in, and it's so important.

Speaker 1: 2:37

The authors emphasize that the impact of poor air quality isn't felt equally across society, of poor air quality isn't felt equally across society. They talk about a triple jeopardy, where disadvantaged communities often experience higher exposure to pollution, a greater burden of existing health problems and increased risk from social factors like poverty. It's a really important point and one that I think we miss so often, drawing on the concept of environmental justice which, as the paper notes, grew out of concerns about environmental racism in the US. The authors apply five dimensions to the analysis of indoor air quality. These dimensions are disruptive justice who gets exposed to what? Procedural justice how are decisions made about air quality? Recognition? Does discrimination play a role? Capabilities do people have the resources to improve their indoor air quality? And epistemic I say that again epistemic justice, whose knowledge is valued, and you know, this framework is incredibly helpful for understanding the many layers of this issue.

Speaker 1: 4:02

The paper delves into 10 questions and I won't go through all of the 10 of them, but I want to pick out a few that I think are particularly relevant to us. One question looks at the link between social inequalities and exposure to poor indoor air quality. As we've discussed, there's evidence that lower socioeconomic groups and minority ethnic communities often face greater exposure to indoor pollutants. The paper also highlights the importance of recognising the historical and social context that leads to these inequalities, using the example of the American Indian and Alaskan Native communities in the US. Another really important question is the role of ventilation. We talk about ventilation a lot on this podcast, and for good reason. The authors rightly point out the tension between making homes more energy efficient and airtight and ensuring adequate ventilation for good indoor air quality. It's a balance and it's crucial that we get it right.

Speaker 1: 5:13

The paper also explores how climate change will affect indoor air quality. Climate change will impact outdoor air quality, which in turn, affects indoor air. It can also increase indoor temperatures and humidity, potentially leading to more pollutants and mould growth. And again, the authors stress that the ability to adapt to these changes, like using air conditioning, isn't equal across different social groups. Net zero policies are also discussed in the paper, specifically how these policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions affect indoor air quality.

Speaker 1: 5:51

While these policies can bring improvements, there are potential downsides, like the use of new building materials that release VOCs. The transition away from gas cooking is likely to improve indoor air quality. And there's the role of new technology in our homes, like air cleaning devices and low-cost air quality sensors. The authors warn that these technologies may not be evenly distributed, potentially creating new inequalities. So what's the big takeaway here? Well, this paper paints a complex picture of the future of indoor air quality. It's not just about the pollutants themselves, but about the social and economical factors that create the inequalities to exposure and the ability to do anything about it. The authors call for a transdisciplinary approach bringing together researchers, policymakers and communities to tackle these challenges. While the paper focuses on heating dominated countries, which might not be directly applicable everywhere, its core message about environmental justice in indoor air quality is globally relevant. I think it leaves us with a sobering thought. Ensuring clean indoor air for everyone is a complex social and technical challenge, but one we absolutely have to address. See you next week.