Ingenious: UnderstandING the sourcEs, traNsformations and fates of IndOor air pollUtantS

在像英国这样的发达国家，我们90%的时间都在室内度过，其中大约三分之二的时间都在家里。尽管如此，大多数空气污染物监管都侧重于室外环境。越来越多的证据表明，暴露于空气污染会对健康造成一系列影响，但个别污染物对具体健康结果的因果影响仍存在不确定性，部分原因是暴露度量方法粗糙。迄今为止，几乎所有关于健康影响的研究都使用了固定的室外空气污染监测网络的测量结果，这一程序忽略了人们大部分时间所处的室内微环境的改变效应。因此，人类暴露在室内空气污染中存在很大的不确定性，这意味着我们目前无法确定最有效的解决方案来设计、操作和使用我们的房屋，以尽量减少我们暴露在室内空气污染中。在英国，几乎没有数据来量化室内空气污染物排放、建筑物间的可变性、室内污染物的化学形态、室外污染物进入室内或室内产生的污染物进入室外，或可能导致污染物暴露增加的社会、经济或生活方式因素。如果对英国家庭室内空气污染是如何产生、转化和分布的没有基本的了解，旨在制定行为、技术或政策干预措施的研究可能收效甚微，或者最坏的情况是适得其反。例如，能源效率措施广泛用于使建筑物更加密闭性。然而，鉴于许多空气污染物的浓度往往在室内高于室外，减少通风率可能会增加我们在室内接触空气污染的机会，以及由此产生的污染物混合物的任何潜在有害影响。此外，如果在没有充分考虑居住者在建筑物中的实际使用和行为的情况下引入干预措施，则可能无法达到预期的效果。为了了解和改善室内空气质量（IAQ），我们必须采用一种兼顾家庭和人类的系统方法。英国最贫困家庭的数据尤其缺乏。有一种简单的假设认为，贫困家庭的室内空气质量可能比富裕家庭更差，尽管现实可能要微妙得多。质量较差的房屋可能比更昂贵的房屋更容易漏水，从而使室内排放物更容易逸出，而大型、昂贵的联排别墅改建为公寓后，由于装修不当，通风不良。烹饪方法、吸烟率、室内建筑材料和室内含溶剂产品的使用等方面的差异也会因人口而有很大差异，因此对室内空气质量和污染物暴露产生不同的影响。事实上，个人行为的差异导致室内空气污染物浓度的巨大差异，即使是在相同的房子里，这通常是由使用个人护理产品的频率和多样性造成的。INGENIOUS项目将提供对英国家庭室内污染的全面了解，包括i)与英国相关的主要来源ii)种族多元化城市中家庭之间的差异，重点关注贫困地区（使用正在进行的“出生在布拉德福德”队列研究）iii)污染物在室内转化产生可能对健康产生不利影响的副产品的影响iv)影响室内空气污染的行为驱动因素(v)我们与社区成员共同设计和测试的改善室内空气质量的干预措施建议。

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.