Can you get a breath of fresh air indoors as well as outdoors? The Environmental Protection Agency says “yes” if a few guidelines and reminders help us along. From their online booklet:
People also react very differently to exposure to indoor air pollutants. Further research is needed to better understand which health effects occur after exposure to the average pollutant concentrations found in homes and which occur from the higher concentrations that occur for short periods of time.
But Mark Palmer asks in his article Too hot for your own good if overly warmed air indoors detracts from overall well-being. Reading the article, I am inclined to agree. In his case, it began with a “he said / she said” debate about the bedroom thermostat! Next, we begin to realize that humans adapted first to cold weather by wearing clothing – layers of clothing. (Mr. Palmer also says we can layer our favorite but unsightly clothing pieces deep underneath where no one else will be the wiser!)
There is something immeasurably satisfying about living in a big city, as I do, and experiencing the weather more or less as it is.
Where I live, outdoors in the daytime is only about 30-40 degrees F. lower than the usual indoor temperature of about 72 degrees F. Anecdotally, I notice that it does bother my asthma tendencies when I go from cold to hot air as I enter and exit buildings. It helps me most if I wear quite warm head covering with a rather lighter coat – perhaps a double layer hat/scarf combo with a breezy shawl or something fleecy. A study out of my hometown (Louisville, KY) suggests that airway cooling followed by rapid rewarming caused by bronchial hyperemia leads to airway wall edema and bronchoconstriction. Many patients are left with limitations in their ability to exercise, particularly in cold weather, and some patients prefer minimizing pharmacologic approaches to treatment.
I was interested to find a study that has data to show that in a rural population children of families using wood or coal for heating and cooking had a significant lower prevalence of hay fever, atopy, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness than children living in homes with other heating systems. Using coal and wood burning stoves indoors may be related to a more traditional life style with unknown protective factors that have been lost in families using other sources of energy such as gas, oil, or a central heating system.