Air is essential for live and without it we cannot survive. Air pollution is one of the most serious environmental problems in developing countries. In most cases people live and work in buildings with no or poor ventilation.

Hardly any research regarding the quality of indoor air has been done in South Africa, even though we spent approximately 70% of our time indoors eg. workplace, schools, public buildings, vehicles etc.

Woman, children, elderly and the terminally sick in poor communities are particularly exposed to high levels of combustion emissions for long periods. Lung diseases are one of the biggest killers of children under 5 years old as well as the elderly
Greater concentrations of pollutants are found indoors than outside due to coal stoves, tobacco smoke, paraffin heaters, paraffin stoves, paints, chemical vapors etc.
Adequate ventilation is thus vital for health reasons to provide fresh air and to remove indoor air pollutants, via open able windows, doors and chimneys, and to provide cooling in hot weather.
Our greatest challenge is poor ventilation of informal dwellings especially where coal, paraffin and gas are used as energy source.

The Municipal Health Division perform routine inspections, special inspections, monitoring including public complaints on residential premises and business premises regarding:

• Gas emissions


• Smoke emissions


• Vehicle exhaust emissions


• Dust


• Tobacco smoke


• Education on healthy lifestyles