How to stop air pollution inside your home: Resources to help our communities  

Environmental Health, Other, ,

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Wildfire smoke season is upon us and it’s a good reminder to keep indoor air clean when there’s pollution outside. But keeping indoor air clean is not just something we should do on a smoky day. Air pollution can also be a problem inside your home, especially if there’s not good ventilation. In fact, most of our exposure to air pollution comes from indoors! 

Most folks don’t know about indoor air pollution, so we’ve created short videos and graphics in many languages to help people living in King County learn why clean indoor air is important to good health. It’s especially vital information for anyone who has asthma, is pregnant, or lives near a highway, airport, or other high pollution areas. Please share these videos and graphics (also below), and if you work for a community or healthcare organization, feel free to use them for your web sites, blogs, and newsletters. 

Videos 

What is air pollution?

Learn how air pollution can sneak into your home, and how it contributes to health problems like asthma, heart disease, and dementia. 

This resource is also available in the following languages.

Tagalog | Vietnamese | Arabic | Khmer | Somali | Amharic | Spanish | Chinese

Where does air pollution come from?

Find out some common sources of air pollution and simple ways you can limit exposure to pollution in your home. 

This resource is also available in the following languages.

Tagalog | Vietnamese | Arabic | Khmer | Somali | Amharic | Spanish | Chinese

Who is most affected by air pollution?

Explore how airports harm the health of people in nearby neighborhoods, which King County communities are disproportionately impacted, and how improving indoor air quality can help improve community health and wellbeing. 

This resource is also available in the following languages.

Tagalog | Vietnamese | Arabic | Khmer | Somali | Amharic | Spanish | Chinese

Graphics

Ways to improve indoor air quality at home

These slides have short, simple steps to take at home, including cleaning tips, recommendations for products to avoid, and ways to keep air flowing in your home. Share them on social media or in presentations.

  • A slide with a woman sitting in front of a portable air filter.
  • An illustration of a home showing various elements that can contribute to poor air quality including insulation, bath water, dust, flooring, furniture, paint, and air fresheners.
  • You can improve your air quality in three ways: Through prevention, ventilation and filtration.
  • How to prevent poor air quality: Take shoes off inside. Dust and mop frequently. Avoid using scented products like air fresheners. Avoid burning scented candles indoors. Avoid smoking indoors, especially when children are present.
  • Ventilation brings in fresh air from outside to improve air circulation and dilute the number of harmful particles in your home. Open windows if weather allows. Place fans in the window to blow contaminated air out and pull new air in. Turn on an exhaust fan or open a window when you cook or take a shower.
  • You should avoid opening windows during wildfire smoke events and days when outdoor air pollution is high. On these days, a portable HEPA air cleaner or box fan filter may be a better solution.
  • Consider buying a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter, which captures and removes tiny particles from air such as pollen, smoke, germs, mold and dust.
  • You can make an affordable DIY box fan filter at home that can reduce certain types of air pollution by 90%. Place your filter or air cleaner where you spend the most time, or in areas where you can't open windows or turn on an exhaust fan.

Slides are available in the following languages: አማርኛ (Amharic), العربية (Arabic), 简体字 (Chinese – Simplified), 繁體字 (Chinese – Traditional), دری (Dari), English, 日本語 (Japanese), 한국어 (Korean), Kajin M̧ajeļ (Marshallese), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi), Русский (Russian), Af Soomaali (Somali), Español (Spanish), Wikang Tagalog/Filipino (Tagalog/Filipino), ትግርኛ (Tigrinya), Українська (Ukrainian), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).

Breathe Better at Home

This infographic guide illustrates where sources of air pollution can be found in each room of a home and provides more detailed guidance about how to clean the air, room-by-room. This resources is also available in the following languages on our website:  Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Somali, Amharic, Arabic, French, Ukrainian, Russian.

More information about indoor air 

Originally published on 7/30/25.