Ingenious: UnderstandING the sourcEs, traNsformations and fates of IndOor air pollUtantS
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Environment
Abstract
In developed countries such as the UK, we spend 90% of our time indoors with approximately two thirds of this in our homes. Despite this fact, most air pollutant regulation focuses on the outdoor environment. There is increasing evidence that exposure to air pollution causes a range of health effects, but uncertainties on the causal effects of individual pollutants on specific health outcomes still exist partly due to crude exposure metrics. Nearly all studies of health effects to date have used measurements from fixed outdoor air pollution monitoring networks, a procedure that ignores the modification effects of indoor microenvironments where people spend most of their time. There are consequently large uncertainties surrounding human exposure to indoor air pollution, which means we are currently unable to identify the most effective solutions to design, operate and use our homes to minimise our exposure to air pollution within them.
In the UK, there are virtually no data to quantify indoor air pollutant emissions, building-to-building variability of these, chemical speciation of indoor pollutants, ingress of outdoor pollution indoors or of indoor generated pollutants outdoors, or the social, economic or lifestyle factors that can lead to elevated pollutant exposures. Without a fundamental understanding of how indoor air pollution is caused, transformed and distributed in UK homes, research aiming to develop behavioural, technical or policy interventions may have little impact, or at worst be counterproductive. For example, energy efficiency measures are broadly designed to make buildings more airtight. However, given that the concentrations of many air pollutants are often higher indoors than outdoors, reducing ventilation rates may increase our exposure to air pollution indoors and to any potentially harmful effects of the resulting pollutant mixture. Further, if interventions are introduced without sufficient consideration of how occupants actually use and behave in a building, they may fail to achieve the desired effect. To understand and improve indoor air quality (IAQ), we must adopt a systems approach that considers both the home and the human.
There is a particular paucity of data for the most deprived households in the UK. There is a facile assumption that poorer homes are likely to experience worse IAQ than better off households, although the reality may be considerably more nuanced. Lower quality housing may be leakier than more expensive homes allowing indoor emissions to escape more easily, whilst large, expensive town-houses converted to flats can be badly ventilated following poor retrofitting practices. Differences in cooking practices, smoking rates, internal building materials and the usage of solvent containing products indoors will also be subject to wide variations across populations and hence have differential effects on IAQ and pollutant exposure. In fact, differences in individual behaviour lead to large variations in indoor concentrations of air pollutants even for identical houses, typically driven by the frequency and diversity of personal care product use.
The INGENIOUS project will provide a comprehensive understanding of indoor pollution in UK homes, including i) the key sources relevant to the UK ii) the variability between homes in an ethnically diverse urban city, with a focus on deprived areas (using the ongoing Born in Bradford cohort study) iii) the effects of pollutant transformation indoors to generate by-products that may adversely affect health iv) the drivers of behaviours that impact on indoor air pollution (v) recommendations for interventions to improve IAQ that we have co-designed and tested with community members.
In the UK, there are virtually no data to quantify indoor air pollutant emissions, building-to-building variability of these, chemical speciation of indoor pollutants, ingress of outdoor pollution indoors or of indoor generated pollutants outdoors, or the social, economic or lifestyle factors that can lead to elevated pollutant exposures. Without a fundamental understanding of how indoor air pollution is caused, transformed and distributed in UK homes, research aiming to develop behavioural, technical or policy interventions may have little impact, or at worst be counterproductive. For example, energy efficiency measures are broadly designed to make buildings more airtight. However, given that the concentrations of many air pollutants are often higher indoors than outdoors, reducing ventilation rates may increase our exposure to air pollution indoors and to any potentially harmful effects of the resulting pollutant mixture. Further, if interventions are introduced without sufficient consideration of how occupants actually use and behave in a building, they may fail to achieve the desired effect. To understand and improve indoor air quality (IAQ), we must adopt a systems approach that considers both the home and the human.
There is a particular paucity of data for the most deprived households in the UK. There is a facile assumption that poorer homes are likely to experience worse IAQ than better off households, although the reality may be considerably more nuanced. Lower quality housing may be leakier than more expensive homes allowing indoor emissions to escape more easily, whilst large, expensive town-houses converted to flats can be badly ventilated following poor retrofitting practices. Differences in cooking practices, smoking rates, internal building materials and the usage of solvent containing products indoors will also be subject to wide variations across populations and hence have differential effects on IAQ and pollutant exposure. In fact, differences in individual behaviour lead to large variations in indoor concentrations of air pollutants even for identical houses, typically driven by the frequency and diversity of personal care product use.
The INGENIOUS project will provide a comprehensive understanding of indoor pollution in UK homes, including i) the key sources relevant to the UK ii) the variability between homes in an ethnically diverse urban city, with a focus on deprived areas (using the ongoing Born in Bradford cohort study) iii) the effects of pollutant transformation indoors to generate by-products that may adversely affect health iv) the drivers of behaviours that impact on indoor air pollution (v) recommendations for interventions to improve IAQ that we have co-designed and tested with community members.
Organisations
- University of York (Lead Research Organisation)
- Immaterial Labs (Collaboration)
- Bradford Metropolitan District Council (Collaboration)
- WSP Civils (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Born in Bradford Office (Project Partner)
- Immaterial Labs (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Tincture london (Project Partner)
- Homelink (Project Partner)
- Reckitt Benckiser (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- National Centre for Atmospheric Science (Project Partner)
- Ricardo AEA (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Warburton T
(2023)
The impact of plug-in fragrance diffusers on residential indoor VOC concentrations
in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
Whitty, C.
(2023)
Chief Medical Officer's annual report 2022: air pollution
Title | INGENIOUS project: Understanding air pollution in homes |
Description | A short animation helping us to recruit volunteers to have indoor air quality measurements made in their homes. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | 296 views so far. |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1uaQtLIt7E |
Description | We have made significant progress with compiling an indoor emissions inventory, achieved through countless experiments around cooking and cleaning activities. We are now beginning to prepare this material for publication. We have now surveyed around 250/300 homes, where we are measuring indoor air pollution and linking the findings to behaviour. We expect to have analysis completed by later summer. We have found that some homes have high pollutant concentrations and that cooking is one of the largest sources. We have also been driving our mobile laboratory around Bradford and York to try and find signatures of indoor activities. We have found that there are different pollutants associated with traffic dominated versus residential areas and are working with our modellers group to try and better understand our findings and their implications. |
Exploitation Route | The indoor emissions inventory and the measurements in homes, will help us to understand the pollutant concentrations we might expect to see in homes following specific activities, given it is not possible to carry out more widespread measurements. This could be useful for policy makers when designing future mitigation plans. |
Sectors | Chemicals Communities and Social Services/Policy Construction Environment Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
URL | https://ingenious.york.ac.uk/ |
Description | Collaboration with Bradford City Council |
Organisation | Bradford Metropolitan District Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Bradford City Council was awarded a Defra grant in April 2022 to investigate air quality in homes in Bradford. They were keen to collaborate with the measurements we had planned in homes in our study, so we invited them for discussions to see if we could provide added value for INGENIOUS and its outcomes. |
Collaborator Contribution | Bradford City Council will focus on woodstove use in the homes we are investigating, as an additional strand of information. |
Impact | None yet - we are just starting the measurements in the coming days. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Collaboration with Immaterial |
Organisation | Immaterial Labs |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Immaterial manufacture metal organic frameworks, or MOFs, to remove pollutants from air. Immaterial are a start-up company working on proof of concept at the moment, rather than manufacturing their materials at large scale. We invited Immaterial to our project meetings and were able to test the potential of their novel materials to remove air pollutants generated during cooking and cleaning during some of our early experiments. This collaboration has led to a small, additional research project application being submitted to Innovate UK to further test these materials. This proposal was successful and attracted £136K in additional funding (see further funding section). |
Collaborator Contribution | Members of the Immaterial team have attended some of our project meetings and also provided some of their novel air cleaning materials to test during our early experiments. They contributed towards the preparation of the research project application to Innovate UK. As a result of this collaboration through IMPECCABLE, Immaterial also became involved in another UKRI funded project, INGENIOUS. |
Impact | Research application (see further funding) Involvement of Immaterial in another UKRI grant for NERC called INGENIOUS, that links indoor air pollution, health and behaviour (see INGENIOUS grant details). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Article for student newsletter |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | To inform students about indoor air quality |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.yorkvision.co.uk/climate/air-pollution-inside-your-home/11/08/2023 |
Description | Blog for Clean Air Programme |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Blog on air cleaning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ukcleanair.org/2022/05/10/to-clean-or-not-to-clean-that-is-the-question/ |
Description | Blog on IAQ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A blog that described the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/news-events-and-media/blogs/ingenious-indoor-air-quality |
Description | Bradford Science Festival: BiBFest |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We ran a panel discussion as part of BiBfest when INGENIOUS was discussed. Born in Bradford (BiB) are involved in INGENIOUS. This event was a celebration of their wider activities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://borninbradford.nhs.uk/news-events/events/bibfest-2023/ |
Description | Bradford Telegraph and Argus article |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Newspaper article reporting the INGENIOUS project funding. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19465908.bradford-focus-major-air-quality-research-proje... |
Description | Ingenious website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A website to share news to a wider audience, highlight forthcoming and past events and news items. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ingenious.york.ac.uk/ |
Description | Interviewed by Financial Times around scented candle impacts |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interviewed for an article by the Financial Times (Style Editor) for article on the pros and cons of scented candle use. Educational purpose as many people don't know about emissions from scented candles. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.ft.com/content/6864fbb1-2a39-40bf-995a-f43d92d0d5b5 |
Description | Interviewed for BBC Radio Scotland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interviewed about spring cleaning, following on from article in the Times. Only happened a few days ago, so no impact to report yet. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://mms.tveyes.com/MediaDownload.asp?MDID=19145532&MDS=6149 |
Description | Newspaper interview: The Times |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interviewed around emissions that might arise from spring cleaning given time of year. Led directly to a request to appear on BBC Radio Scotland. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wait-before-you-blitz-the-mould-are-those-cleaning-products-toxic... |
Description | Online article from NCAS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Article from NCAS highlighting roles of NCAS scientists within INGENIOUS |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ncas.ac.uk/british-team-to-undertake-four-year-air-pollution-study-inside-bradford-homes/ |
Description | Outreach with schoolkids |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | One of the project post-docs visited a school in Bradford to talk about air quality. There was good engagement from the school kids. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Primary Schools outreach |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Primary Schools outreach in Dept of Chemistry labs, with a "Clean Air Day" theme: St. Lawrence's Primary year 5 class, 20th June. Badger Hill Primary year 5 class, 21st June. 1 staff, 2 PDRAs, 4 students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | University press release to announce successful funding outcome |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Press release to announce the new project. Led to some other Radio interviews and some engagement on Twitter. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/research/indoor-ukri-pollution/ |
Description | Webinar related to Awaab's Law |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We held a Webinar with some expert speakers (2 from INGENIOUS) and then had a Q and A session. More than 80 people attended. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.sei.org/events/beyond-awaabs-law-webinar/ |
Description | York Festival of Ideas |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Set up a stand in the discovery zone to inform public about air pollution, including some of the team from the INGENIOUS project talking about indoor air quality |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2023/calendar/discovery-zone/ |
Description | York Festival of Ideas. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Discovery Zone in the Guildhall on 12th June 2022 on the topic of "Indoor Air Science" with 2 staff, 3 PDRAs and 3 students. Opportunities for members of public to get hands on experience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | York Talk 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The project PI gave one of the 2022 York Talks, a popular annual event that aims to highlight York research to the wide public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NBu9OlO9js |
Description | evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Was asked to provide oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee based on expertise. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13471/pdf/ |