LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Lahore’s air quality index passed 530 this week, and the forecast is for more bad days. You cannot fix the air outside, but the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency have clear advice on making the air inside your home safer.
Seal the house
Keep external doors and windows closed during high pollution, the WHO says. If your air conditioner has a fresh-air setting, close it and use recirculate mode, the EPA advises in its guidance on wildfire smoke, which is also made up of fine particles.
Stop adding to it
Avoid anything that burns indoors, the WHO says, naming wood stoves, candles and incense, and do not smoke inside. In a Pakistani home in winter, that advice also covers agarbatti and open-flame heaters.
Mop, don’t sweep
Wet mopping and dusting is better than sweeping or vacuuming, according to the WHO, because those can stir up more dust and particles.
Make one clean room
If you cannot clean the whole house, the EPA suggests choosing one room big enough for everyone in the household and running a portable air cleaner there. Check that the cleaner is powerful enough for the room and produces little or no ozone, itself a harmful pollutant. Replace filters when they are dirty, which may be sooner than the manufacturer says.
If a purifier is out of reach, the EPA also describes a do-it-yourself cleaner made from a box fan and one or more high-efficiency filters.
Who needs this most
Children, older people, pregnant women and people with heart or lung disease are at greatest risk, and the WHO says those at risk should stay indoors as much as possible. Everyone should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outside.
The Pakistan Air Quality Initiative says Lahore’s fine-particle pollution averaged 100 micrograms per cubic metre in October, even in the city’s cleanest October since 2021, and was above Pakistan’s legal limit on all 31 days. It forecasts levels of about 149 by Wednesday.
