Indoor air pollution is easy to ignore. We step inside, shut the door, and assume we are safe. The traffic noise fades. The smell of smoke disappears. Everything feels calmer. Cleaner.
But according to Dr Harsh Vardhan Puri, chest surgeon at Medanta Hospital, that sense of safety is often misleading. He said that in many Indian homes, the air inside quietly carries more risk than the pollution outside, and most people do not realise it.
When indoor air quietly turns toxic
Speaking to India TV, Dr Puri said indoor pollution often goes unnoticed because it does not look dramatic. “Indoor air quality is often worse than outdoor air because pollutants get trapped,” he said. He explained that closed rooms, poor ventilation, and everyday household products allow harmful particles to linger in the air.
The doctor said people spend most of their time indoors. “We spend about 8 to 10 hours sleeping,” he explained earlier, adding that breathing polluted air continuously, even at lower levels, adds up over time. The lungs do not get a break.
Why mosquito coils are far more dangerous than they seem
Dr Puri issued a strong warning about mosquito coils. “One mosquito coil burning in a closed room is equivalent to smoking roughly 100 cigarettes in terms of particulate matter,” he said.
He explained that the smoke from a coil may feel mild, but the damage is serious. These fine particles are inhaled for hours, especially at night. “People use them to protect themselves from mosquitoes, but they are unknowingly destroying their lungs,” he said.
How homes can damage lungs more than traffic
Dr Puri said traffic pollution is visible, while indoor pollution is not, which makes it more dangerous. “Some of the most dangerous things are happening while we think we are breathing normal air,” he said.
He explained that pollutants released indoors remain trapped and concentrated. Cooking fumes, incense sticks, mosquito coils, and poor exhaust systems combine silently. Over time, this causes chronic inflammation. Breathlessness, he said, develops gradually and does not appear overnight.
The risk most families underestimate
Dr Puri addressed the common belief that indoor plants can clean the air. “To actually purify the air in a room using plants, you would need to turn it into a literal jungle,” he said, adding that a few plants may feel psychologically comforting but have negligible impact on particulate matter.
He said air purifiers do help, but only within limits. “If you are breathing clean air for eight hours while sleeping, you are at least giving your lungs a rest period,” he explained. However, he added that the protection ends the moment one leaves that space.
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