Ever wondered about indoor air quality? Surprisingly, it can be 2 to 5 times worse than the air outside, and that's not good news for you and your family's health.
Tiny particles of dust and dirt, known as particulate matter, float around indoors, irritating your eyes, nose, and throat. They can even worsen asthma and allergies. Plus, your home's humidity levels play a role too. High levels of humidity can cause mould and potential respiratory issues and too little can be a breeding ground for the flu.
Indoor Air Quality project 2022 - 2023
Thanks to funding received from Beyond: Cheshire and Merseyside ICB Children and Young People’s Transformation programme and Torus, in 2022, Torus Foundation was able to initiate the Indoor Air Quality project.
Through the Foundation’s Healthy Neighbours Project, colleagues and volunteers engaged with Torus customers living with young children to install 200 devices that monitored levels of dust, dirt, CO2, humidity, temperature, VOC (airborne chemicals from every day household products, pressure and radon.
The aim of the project was to contribute towards improving respiratory health for young children (under 11 years) living in social housing through the use of digital technology, leading to improved air quality and better health of children in early years.
Customers were able to check the quality of the air in their home at any time by scanning a QR code and were provided with a report that included practical hints and tips to help towards making any improvements. Additional support relating to financial inclusion and health and wellbeing was also made available from Torus Foundation.
Beyond: Cheshire and Merseyside ICB Children and Young People’s Transformation programme commissioned Lancaster University and NAQTS (National Air Quality Testing Services Ltd.) to evaluate the project’s impact. NAQTS carried out an analysis of anonymised monitor data looking at the indoor air quality in the households at the start of the campaign, and then assessing any changes following the installation of the device.
Torus Foundation and members from the Healthy Neighbours Project also took place in interviews and focus groups, and Torus customers who had monitors installed were also invited to be involved.
Key findings from Lancaster University and NAQT
Motivation to get involved
Many of the customers who agreed to host a device, commented that they did so for a number of reasons which included:
- concerns about children’s health
- it validated their concerns about indoor air quality
- a curiosity and checking health in their home
- monitor impact of remedial work
- media coverage had brought their attention to the importance of improving the quality of the air in the home
Customers also shared some of their changes in behaviour, such as:
- stopping smoking or changing where they smoked
- drying washing outside
- opening windows
- changing their cleaning routines
"You could tell when I’d used fly spray as the device was picking up the type of chemicals inside the room. I won’t use it in the living room now and I also stopped using the brush to pick up as it was recording dust levels in the air, a quick once over with the hoover from now on.”
While many of the readings for the customers highlighted where changes could be made, it also help reassurance some people that they did have a good level of air quality in the home.
"When I got the report through, I was happy to see it was all in average range."
Transparency and empowerment
By providing Torus customers with direct access to the monitor readings, rather than Torus Foundation act as a ‘gatekeeper’, this helped promote transparency and build trust. It also equipped both customers and Torus teams with evidence to address any housing concerns effectively.
Improvements and target support
While some of the indoor air quality improved across Torus communities, some homes still shows high levels of specific pollutants. Identifying these homes and continuing to offer support, could help make future improvements.
Complex factors
While some general trends were seen, there was a variation across the different locations that suggest diverse indoor and outdoor sources. This implies that a personalised, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach is needed to advise on indoor air quality across Torus communities.
Success factors
Torus Foundation worked in collaboration with the Healthy Neighbour Volunteers to carry out various engagement tools, such as leafleting, door knocking and community events to make the project as successful as possible.
Challenges and solutions
Some customers had difficulty in understanding the air quality reports and technical issues like moving the monitors. When customers unplugged the monitors it caused gaps in collecting the data. There were some concerns over the weather getting colder and outdoor pollution affecting their need to open windows for ventilation. Teams helped to address some of these concerns by offering ongoing support.
- Monitors were installed in more than 200 homes and follow up contacts completed with around two thirds of participating households. Once the campaign widened to include families with children under 11 years and not just 0-5, this led to a greater uptake in Torus customers agreeing to be involved.
- In the interviews with Torus customers, the reasons for wanting to take part included their health concerns for family members and wanting validation of problems relating to their housing conditions. Participants also wanted to assess air quality improvements after helpful interventions, while others were driven by an interest more generally in the health of their home environment.
- Some participants commented that the findings encouraged them to remove certain cleaning products and alter some of their cleaning habits.
Implications for Practice, Policy and Research
- Service delivery: Projects delivered in partnership with communities, community organisations and housing providers are more likely to achieve improvements in IAQ and/or health rather than the use of monitors alone. A community-based approach can support better signposting to support and intervention, for example, related to housing problems (e.g. damp) or financial problems (e.g. fuel poverty) affecting IAQ. Sufficient time, resource and capacity should also be factored into implementation to support ongoing engagement, installation and follow ups.
- Health Inequalities: Improving IAQ is shaped by people’s ability to make choices and their living environments. While people need to be equipped with knowledge and awareness about healthy IAQ behaviours, organisations should also identify and address barriers that may prevent this, as well as consider structural factors influencing IAQ such as housing quality, and outdoor air quality.
- Research and evaluation: There is a need for research on IAQ interventions, requiring robust mixed methods studies to understand their effects on health and IAQ. Findings from this study also point to the need for further research into the sources of poor IAQ to understand the contribution of localised outdoor air quality as well as behavioural factors.
Find out more
Support for Torus communities
If you would like to find out more about the indoor air quality campaign or other support provided to Torus customers to help make improvements to their health and wellbeing, please get in touch with Torus Foundation with your request via info@torusfoundation.org.uk
Research evaluation
If you would like to find out more detailed information about the evaluation and other research on indoor air quality, you can contact Douglas Booker at dbooker@naqts.com and Emma Halliday (e.halliday@lancaster.ac.uk)
Click here for detailed evaluation reports:
Briefing 1 – Learning about delivery
Briefing 3 – Tenant experience/impacts
