Indoor air pollution is worse than ever.

You can be at as high a risk from air pollution while sitting on your sofa at home as from cycling downtown during rush hour. Cigarette smoke, radon, asbestos, benzene, and other indoor pollutants can be twice as polluting as outdoor environments.

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We spend on average 85% to 90% of our time indoors at home, in school, at work, or during leisure time. Reductions in ventilation rates to limit and conserve energy as well as extensive use of new building materials are releasing chemical substances with unknown toxic properties into our dwellings. The result: allergies, asthma, mucous irritation, headaches, and fatigue.

Tobacco smoke remains the major contributor to indoor air pollution. Preliminary evidence indicates that changes in ventilation rates during smoking do not have a significant influence on the concentration of tobacco in the air. That means, in effect, that efforts to reduce indoor air pollution through higher ventilation would hardly lead to a measurable improvement in indoor air quality in homes and businesses with smokers.

Other culprits include benzene, a known carcinogen, which is frequently used in manufacturing rubber, paint, plastics, and synthetics. Overall exposure to this and other pollutants is at least twice that of urban pollution levels. Exposure to benzene is increasingly associated with serious health problems.

Source: European Commission, Joint Research Center, Information and Public Relations Unit, SDME 10/78, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium. Web site www.jrc.org.