A hidden source of air pollution? Your daily chores

Cooking, cleaning and other routine household activities generate significant amounts of volatile and particulate chemicals in an average home, leading to indoor air quality levels equivalent to those of a large polluted city, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In addition, airborne chemicals from a home do not stay there: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from products such as shampoos, perfumes and cleaning solutions end up in the air. by escaping and contribute to the formation of ozone and fine particles, thus constituting an even greater source of global air pollution than cars and trucks do.

The previously under-explored relationship between households and air quality has been at the center of concern at the annual AAA 2019 meeting in Washington, DC, where researchers from the USSR have been discussing the issue. Cooperative Research Institute for Environmental Sciences of CU Boulder (CIRES) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University have presented their recent roundtable.

"Houses have never been considered a major source of outdoor air pollution and the time has come to start exploring them," said Marina Vance, badistant professor of mechanical engineering at CU Boulder. "We wanted to know: how do basic activities such as cooking and cleaning change the chemistry of a home?"

In 2018, Vance co-directed the HOMEChem collaborative field campaign, which used advanced sensors and cameras to monitor the indoor air quality of a 1,200 square foot prefabricated home located on the ground. campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Over the course of a month, Vance and her colleagues conducted a variety of daily housekeeping activities, including preparing a full Thanksgiving dinner in mid-summer Texan.

Although the results of the HOMEChem experiment are still pending, Mr. Vance stated that it was obvious that homes needed to be well ventilated during cooking and cleaning, as even basic tasks such as doing Boiling water on a stove can contribute to high levels of gaseous air pollutants and suspended particulates, with negative impacts on health.

To his team's surprise, the concentrations measured in the interior were high enough for their sensitive instruments to be recalibrated almost immediately.

"Even just toasting toast has raised particle levels well above expectations," said Vance. "We had to go and adjust many instruments."

Indoor and outdoor experts are collaborating to paint a more complete picture of air quality, said Joost de Gouw, visiting professor at CIRES. Last year, Gouw and his colleagues published in the journal Science results showing that the regulation of automobiles has led to a reduction in transportation-related emissions in recent decades, while the relative importance household chemical pollutants had only grown.

"Many traditional sources, such as fossil fuel powered vehicles, have become much cleaner than before," Gouw said. "The EPA monitors ozone and fine particles, but data regarding airborne toxins such as formaldehyde and benzene and compounds such as alcohols and ketones 39, domestic origin are very rare.

While de Gouw stated that it was too early in the research to make recommendations on consumer policy or behavior, it is encouraging that the scientific community is now thinking about the "atmosphere", derived from the Greek word "eso". translates as "inner".

"Originally, the skepticism was whether these products actually did or did not contribute to air pollution, but not anymore," de Gouw said. "To move forward, we need to refocus research efforts on these sources and give them the same attention we have given to fossil fuels." The picture we have in our heads about The atmosphere should now include a house. "

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