Indoor Air Pollution in India – a Major Environmental and Public Health Concern

In many people’s minds air pollution is associated with the contamination of urban air from automobile exhausts and industrial effluents. However, in developing countries, the problem of indoor air pollution far outweighs the ambient air pollution. There are four principal sources of pollutants of indoor air : (i) combustion, (ii) building material, (iii) the ground under the building, and (iv) bioaerosols. In developed countries the most important indoor air pollutants are radon, asbestos, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, heavy metals, animal dander, mites, moulds and environmental tobacco smoke. However, in developing countries the most important indoor air pollutants are the combustion products of unprocessed solid biomass fuels used by the poor urban and rural folk for cooking and heating.