To have anxiety about road pollution at home

[Olive180]

We live in a flat on a high street on a busy main road (single carriageway). It's constant traffic everyday from 5am to 10pm when it starts to die down a little overnight. There's a lot of talk in the community and press that the area has one of the highest air pollution levels in the city, even in the country. This summer I struggled to breathe on some of the hotter, polluted days (I had asthma as a child and have often felt tight chested in recent years). I have constant anxiety about what the pollution is doing to my health, whether it's affecting my lungs, brain, fertility. I dream my lungs are full of tar. I regularly wake up in the night panicking. And there's nothing I can do about it.

We didn't intend to stay here long but with everything that's happened over the past few years we simply can't afford to move. I don't know what I can do?

Can you afford a proper air filter and a lot of houseplants.

You could get an air purifier, check the microns (I think they're called) to get one that filters out the right level of particle

i used to live in a polluted area. As others say try an air filter and you can get some houseplants that are good for this. When walking on the high street stay as close to the shop windows as you can or take a back street.

Are you renting or bought?

What type of windows do you have?

We invested in quite a hardcore air purifier but, looking at the data it collects, I'm skeptical about whether it really does anything to be honest.

I've got tons of plants, DP says we live in a jungle.