Yifang Zhu in Scientific American: Coronavirus Lockdowns May Raise Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution
This spring, as the COVID-19 pandemic led people to hunker down at home, outdoor air quality improved dramatically in many cities and countries. In the northeastern U.S., for instance, air pollution dropped by 30 percent. But the lockdowns might be having the opposite effect indoors. “People think the outdoor air in cities is not that great,” says Yifang Zhu, an air pollution researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. “But usually the indoor air is worse.”