Indoor Air Quality

Clean Air Council’s indoor air pollution program works by educating residents to reduce exposure to air pollution while indoors. Most Americans spend considerably more time indoors than outdoors, yet there are few laws that protect the public from exposure to indoor pollution. Indoor pollution can come from natural sources (radon); combustion (carbon monoxide); consumer goods (lead); or personal behavior (cigarette smoke).

The Council works to strengthen indoor air pollution laws at the federal, state and local levels, educates the public on how to reduce its exposure to indoor air pollution, and operates the region’s most comprehensive Indoor Air Pollution Information Center.

The most significant change to the Council’s indoor air quality program since its inception happened in 2002 when it began an educational campaign on tobacco smoke pollution. As part of its tobacco work , the Council has done compliance checks of restaurants to ensure they are following laws concerning smoking in their facilities and has worked with daycare centers to eliminate smoking on their properties. The Council is also active in coalitions that led to the passage of workplace smoking prohibitions in the City of Philadelphia and for the entire state of Pennsylvania. Most recently the Council has been working with Pennsylvania public housing, universities and colleges to urge the institutions to become smoke-free.

For more information and/or assistance on indoor air pollution issues, please contact Thurm Brendlinger. His email address is brendlinger@cleanair.org, and his phone number is 215-567-4004 ext. 104.