What's Lurking in Your Home? How Indoor Air Quality Affects Your Lungs

Your home might be harming your lungs more than you realize. Recent findings from the European Respiratory Society Congress 2025 reveal that common household items—from cleaning products to cooking fuels—are creating serious respiratory health risks that could be significantly increasing your chances of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and other breathing problems.

How Do Household Cleaners Damage Your Respiratory System?

The heightened use of disinfectants since the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased exposure risks from cleaning products, which are now linked to asthma, COPD, and other respiratory symptoms. Professional cleaners face the highest risk, but everyday household use is also concerning. The danger becomes even more severe when people mix cleaning products—combining bleach with acid or ammonia-based products creates toxic gas combinations that can cause immediate and long-term lung damage.

Experts are now recommending safer alternatives and better ventilation practices to reduce these risks in homes across the country.

What Makes Cooking Fuels So Dangerous for Your Lungs?

In countries like India, where 41% of the population relies on solid biomass fuels such as wood and dung for cooking, the health impact is staggering. The inefficient burning in traditional stoves creates high concentrations of particulate matter and gases, increasing COPD risk by a factor of 2.65 compared with nonbiomass fuels—that's a 165% increase in risk.

Women face particularly high exposure because they typically spend the most time in poorly ventilated kitchens where these fuels are burned. The microscopic particles and toxic gases released during cooking accumulate in enclosed spaces, creating a constant assault on respiratory health.

Can Wildfire Smoke Change Your Lung Bacteria?

Even brief exposure to wildfire smoke can alter the delicate balance of bacteria living in your lungs, according to groundbreaking research from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the study examined how wood smoke—used as a model for wildfire smoke—affects the lung microbiome.

"Similar to the skin and the gut, the inside of our lungs is covered in microbes that can help maintain lung health, also called the microbiome," said Meghan E. Rebuli, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology. "However, if the balance of bacteria present in the lungs is altered by exposures, such as what we were testing here with wood smoke, it has been associated with lung disease."

The research revealed that some beneficial bacteria became less common after smoke exposure, while harmful bacteria increased. Additionally, researchers observed a drop in lung macrophages—immune cells crucial for clearing harmful particles and microbes from the respiratory system.

What Can You Do to Protect Your Respiratory Health at Home?

Experts recommend several practical steps to reduce indoor air pollution risks:

• Improve Ventilation: Open windows and use exhaust fans when cleaning or cooking to help toxic particles and gases escape rather than accumulate indoors
• Choose Safer Cleaning Alternatives: Replace harsh chemical cleaners with safer options like vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, which can effectively clean without releasing harmful respiratory irritants
• Never Mix Cleaning Products: Avoid combining bleach with acid or ammonia-based products, as this creates dangerous gas combinations that can cause immediate lung damage
• Consider Cooking Fuel Alternatives: If possible, switch from biomass fuels to cleaner cooking methods that produce fewer harmful particles and gases

The research also suggests that understanding these microbiome changes could lead to new treatment approaches. "Long-term we hope that this research will lead to respiratory microbiome-targeted therapies, such as probiotics or microbiome-focused drugs to restore microbiome balance after wildfire smoke exposure," explained Rebuli.

These findings highlight how everyday household activities can have profound effects on respiratory health, often in ways we don't immediately notice. By making simple changes to cleaning products, improving ventilation, and being aware of cooking fuel risks, people can significantly reduce their exposure to lung-damaging pollutants right in their own homes.