In New Zealand, poor air quality is estimated to cause 1175 premature deaths and cost over $4 billion each year. Poor air quality can damage both our cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Different types of pollutants have different effects on our health. So far, most research into air quality has focused on the outdoors, but we spend about 80% of our time indoors, so it is important that we gain a better understanding of the pollutants to which people are exposed indoors. Also, recent research indicates that exposure to pollutants can be much higher indoors than outdoors. |