Indoor pollution in Australia is higher inside than outside according to a study by Dyson

In their Global Connected Air Quality Data study where they studied indoor air quality data from 2022 to 2023 to landscape air quality, Dyson found that from over 500 billion data points, average annual indoor pollution levels were higher indoor than outdoors for every month of the year.

Dyson’s worldwide study showed that all countries’ monthly average indoor pollution exceeded the WHO guidance for at least six months of the year, Australia exceeded it the entire year. Go Australia!?! Australia contributed data from 105,768 air purifiers to the study which included 3.4 million air purifiers in total.

Indoor pollution was higher in the Winter months with peaks occurring between 6pm and 1am — coinciding with times when people are usually in their homes. The data was taken from Dyson purifiers and while it is not nationally representative it gives an insight into the pollution we are exposed to indoors, not only on a day-to-day basis but year round in cities.

In terms of Australian cities, Melbourne took the title, crushing Sydney with higher indoor pollution levels for all months but one (June). The ratio of indoor to outdoor pollution was higher for Melbourne for every month of the year. As per the global results, the ratio was higher in Winter when colder weather traps the pollution closer to the ground. Melbourne’s highest indoor levels were in August though which was interesting.

The pollution particles are normally invisible to the human eye with sources including wood burners and other combustion elements, pollens, pet hair and dust. Dyson, of course, feed this data back into their app for users to see and thus tell us when we need to improve the indoor air quality — with an air purifier of course.

With indoor pollution in Australia at worrying levels now might be the time to invest in an air purifier, and if you’ve got one, make sure you have it set to automatically monitor pollution levels to adjust to daily pollution events to minimise your exposure.