Study

INGENIOUS

Background and study aims

Air pollution is a risk factor for many health conditions including cardiovascular, respiratory, and birth outcomes. Although we spend 90% of our time indoors with approximately 2/3 of this time spent in our homes, attention has mostly been paid to outdoor air pollution. We lack good information about the sources, transformations, and mixture of indoor air with outdoor air pollutants even while we know that building types and certain activities and behaviours, such as cooking, cleaning, use of candles and fragranced products, and ventilation, can impact on our exposures and health.

In INGENIOUS (Understanding the sources, transformations, and fates of indoor air pollutants), we will recruit 300 Born in Bradford families and, together with partners from the University of York, University of Manchester, University of Cambridge, and University of Sheffield to examine:

the levels and make-up of air pollutants within the home, such as those generated from cooking and cleaning or due to building characteristics
how air pollutants react and change over time, including when different air pollutants mix together
how indoor air pollutants affect outdoor air quality and vice versa
how different household behaviours such as cleaning, cooking, product use, and ventilation, affect the production of and our exposure to air pollutants, as well as how this affects our health
which behaviours are most effective at reducing exposures to indoor air pollution and co-designing interventions with our communities
which recommendations we can take forward as policy solutions

What does the study involve?

We will recruit 300 BiB families to take part in a 2-week data collection period. We will explore how the physical characteristics of buildings and occupant behaviours influence levels of indoor air pollution and relate these to physical and mental health outcomes. Participants will have a variety of air pollution monitors placed in the home at various locations during this time and will complete a daily diary of behaviours and activities so that we can understand whether certain activities are related to peaks or drops in indoor air quality. Collected data will be fed back to families. We will also identify enablers and barriers to behaviours which may reduce levels of indoor air pollutants and work with our community to co-produce and evaluate interventions to improve indoor air pollution.

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