Rethinking Air Quality as Our Daily ‘Inhalable Diet’:
A Conversation with Dr. Tanya Kaur Bedi
Welcome back to the Air Quality Matters blog, where we delve into the conversations shaping our understanding of the built environment. In a recent episode recorded live at the Healthy Buildings Conference in India, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Tanya Kaur Bedi —an architect, researcher, and environmental planner. Our conversation took a fascinating and spontaneous turn, exploring the intricate ways our choices, designs, and even our cultural habits influence the very air we consume.
At the heart of our discussion was a powerful and memorable concept Tanya introduced: the ‘inhalable diet.’ It’s a simple yet profound reframing of air quality that shifts it from an abstract environmental issue to a deeply personal and daily act of consumption.
What’s in Your ‘Inhalable Diet’?
We meticulously track our food intake, counting calories, proteins, and carbohydrates—a diet of perhaps 2,000 calories a day. Yet, as Tanya pointed out, we pay far less attention to the 10,000 to 15,000 litres of air we breathe every single day. This is our ‘inhalable diet,’ a constant stream of consumption that happens whether we are awake, asleep, working, or relaxing.
Unlike food or water, we have no choice but to breathe the air around us. You can’t simply decide to “not breathe for a couple of hours until you get home.” This lack of choice forces us to think differently about control and agency. Tanya shared a compelling personal anecdote about how a roommate's perfume—a seemingly innocuous part of her daily inhalable diet—was the root cause of a persistent health issue. It’s a perfect illustration of how unseen elements in our air can have very real consequences, highlighting the need for a new level of awareness about the products we bring into our homes, from cleaning supplies and candles to perfumes and building materials.
This central theme of the inhalable diet provided the framework for a wide-ranging discussion, touching on everything from consumer behaviour to architectural practice.
The Architect’s Role in Curating a Healthier Diet
As an architect and interior designer, Tanya brought a unique perspective on how design professionals are, in effect, the chefs curating our indoor inhalable diets. In India, where architects often oversee interior design, their influence extends from the building shell right down to the furniture and finishes.
We explored how crucial—and challenging—material selection is. While some progress has been made with low-VOC paints, many common products like engineered wood, veneers, and plastics still off-gas chemicals like formaldehyde. The conversation revealed the immense difficulty, even for experts, in navigating a market where information on material composition is often opaque or unavailable.
However, the discussion went beyond just material chemistry. Tanya offered an insightful perspective on how physical design can influence air quality. For instance, designing furniture with rounded corners and creating free-flowing spaces can help manage the settlement and recirculation of particulate matter—a dominant pollutant in many Indian cities. It’s a subtle but powerful reminder that thoughtful design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about creating environments that are easier to maintain and healthier to inhabit. Hearing Tanya describe these principles from a practitioner's viewpoint underscores the deep connection between design choices and long-term health outcomes.
Agency, Awareness, and Socio-Economic Realities
A significant portion of our conversation grappled with the complex issue of choice. While we can develop better habits—like trusting our senses to detect stale or odorous air, or avoiding products with strong artificial fragrances—our ability to choose is often constrained by our circumstances.
Tanya shared a stark and growing trend she’s observing in India: families with the means to do so are moving away from heavily polluted cities like Delhi, specifically for health reasons. A doctor’s recommendation to "move out of Delhi" for the sake of an infant's pulmonary health is a powerful indicator of how air quality is beginning to influence major life decisions and, potentially, future real estate markets.
However, this choice is a luxury. For the vast majority, especially middle and lower-income groups, moving cities or exclusively buying premium, certified-healthy materials is not an option. Their ‘inhalable diet’ is largely determined by their location and the affordability of goods. This part of the conversation brings a critical layer of social equity to the forefront, subtly arguing that regulatory action to remove the worst-offending products from the market is essential for protecting everyone, not just those who can afford to choose.
This episode is a journey through these interconnected ideas. It’s a conversation that flows from personal health to urban migration, from design philosophy to consumer activism. The concept of the ‘inhalable diet’ is a touchstone we return to, making a complex topic feel immediate and actionable.
One Take: Does Fixing Mouldy Buildings Make Financial Sense?
In this week's companion One Take episode, we dissect a thought-provoking research paper from Finland that asks a question central to housing policy everywhere: Does remediating moisture and mould-damaged buildings pay for itself?
The study attempts a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, tallying up the huge expense of structural repairs against the monetised benefits of improved health (measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years), energy savings, and reduced carbon emissions. The headline finding is startling: the remediation costs massively outweighed these combined benefits, resulting in a net financial loss of billions of euros.
But that’s not the whole story. The true value of this analysis, as we discuss in the podcast, lies in what it couldn't include. The researchers explicitly note the biggest limitation of their model was its inability to quantify the significant increase in a building’s property value following remediation. This missing piece of the puzzle is critical.
The episode unpacks why this Finnish study, despite its seemingly negative conclusion, provides a powerful new framework for policymakers. It forces us to have a more honest conversation about the total value of maintaining a healthy housing stock—a value that includes not only health and energy but also the preservation of a massive national financial asset. It’s a fascinating look at how we measure what matters.
The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with
Zehnder Group - Farmwood - Eurovent- Aico - Aereco - Ultra Protect -
The One Take Podcast in Partnership with
SafeTraces and Inbiot
Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website.
If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here. Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.