Obvious ones are chemicals, cleaning products, and pesticides. Less obvious are pollutants caused by such simple tasks as cooking, bathing, or heating the home. Fortunately, there are easy steps that everyone can take to reduce the potential for indoor air pollution and to improve the quality of the air they breathe. Often, it is difficult to determine which pollutant or pollutants are the sources of a person s ill health, or even if indoor air pollution is the problem. Some symptoms may not show up until years later, making it even harder to discover the cause.
More serious effects are asthma and other breathing disorders and cancer.
Children may be more susceptible to environmental exposures than adults and, because of their developing systems, particularly vulnerable to their effects. Asthma is a case in point. About 4.2 million children in the United States, and more than 12.4 million people total, are affected by asthma each year.