The costs of indoor pollution are skyrocketing, several studies show.
It costs about $15.9 billion and perhaps up to $20 billion annually nationwide to
prevent and clean up indoor air pollution, says a 2005 EPA study.
In California alone, crummy indoor air costs the state's economy $45 billion
annually due to premature deaths, medical costs, lost worker productivity and
other impacts, says the state's Air Resources Board.
Nationwide, just taking care of childhood asthma caused by indoor pollution costs about $2.3 billion a year.
If society could come up with ways to improve indoor air quality, the
savings would reach $125 billion annually, said the federally financed Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory.
The newspaper also looks at "asthma-proofing the home" and offers advice:
Asthma accounts for more lost school days than any other illness. Its
incidence is far higher today than a generation ago, although asthma rates have
stabilized since 1995 after vaulting 75 percent nationally overall and 160
percent among children under 18 since 1980. The disease has struck about 20
million people in the United States, including about 6.2 million kids 18 and
under, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While the disease commonly stems from a genetic predisposition, research has linked individual attacks, and sometimes the onset of asthma, to a range of triggers:
cigarette smoke, dog and cat hairs and dander, cockroaches, dust mites, mold and
air pollution.
