Tell us what you think about Healthy Air at Home – how healthy is the air in your home?

We know that the air we breathe is important to the health of our families and our community. Did you know that the air that we breathe inside matters as much as the air we breathe outside?

Indoor air is just as important as outdoor air. As people spend a lot of time indoors (even more now since COVID-19), the potential risk to our health from poor indoor air quality can be easily over-looked.

Everyone wants healthy air to breathe – but for many of us, the air we breathe both outside and inside is polluted. Many vulnerable groups can be affected by this, especially children because of their developing lungs. As children grow up, they spend most of their time indoors, including nursery, school and often the homes of their friends or extended families. However, there are health effects from poor indoor air for children, this includes allergies and asthma.

Internal air quality can be improved with support from the system and strong community engagement. And what we learn from our community about how we can improve health and wellbeing for children, we can share across the Borough and beyond, so others benefit too. And focussing on improving the environment for children to thrive enables us to work with whole communities and ultimately improve health for everyone.

The Shaping Places for Healthier Lives Programme (SPHL) is a joint grant programme with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Health Foundation for councils to work with partners from their local area to improve health and address health inequalities. The programme will support local cross-sector partnership action to create the conditions for better health at a local level. We are therefore working with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and the LGA to get your views on the topic of Healthy Air at Home and hear some of the ways you may tackle this issue.