Air pollution in the home

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 17

Air pollution in the home

By

DONALD FREDERICK,

National

Geographic News Service

Retreating indoors to avoid hazy, smog-laden air may not accomplish much. Pollution inside the home can be two to five times worse than conditions outside, recent United States Federal Government studies show.

The main offenders are 11 chemicals found around the house in such diverse substances as cleansing agents, building materials, and paints. “You’ll leave a rag around that’s been doused in paint thinner, or forget to put the lid back on a cleaning fluid can,” says Dr Wayne R. Ott of the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.). “There are countless things around the home that contribute to the problem.” Some sources are less obvious. Fresh dry cleaning, for example, emits chemical pollution. So do moth crystals and many glues. Indoor chemical pollution seems almost the same in both rural and industrial areas. In the E.P.A. studies, volunteers used monitoring devices in heavily industrialised Bayonne, New Jersey, in Greensboro, North Carolina, a city with light industry, and in Devils Lake, North Dakota, a town in an agricultural region. The 11 chemicals monitored included such familiar substances as chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, benzene, and styrene. Flammable chemicals in such products as paint thinners, varnish Evers, and aerosei propellants an added risk* 7 Dr Jay A. g, a chemical-safety consult-

ant in Silver Spring, Maryland, cautions: “Never use flammable liquids in the home. Vapors can be ignited by pilot lights, static electricity, or a spark that might occur behind the cover plate when a light is turned on.”

The indoor-pollution threat follows some people from home to office. Modern buildings with sealed windows are totally dependent on mechanical systems for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and circulation of bad air can be very harmful. In addition to the threat from chemicals in curtains, paint, and other sources, some apartmentdwellers and office workers are exposed to carbon monoxide drifting up from underground parking garages. “Ventilation systems are sometimes faulty, intake vents are put in the wrong places, or doors are inadvertently left open, and carbon monoxide seeps through the whole building,” says Dr Ott. “It’s called the hot-building syndrome.” Radon, a radioactive gas emitted by common substances such as concrete, brick, and soil, also has been singled out as a problem in both homes and office buildings. Radon emits damaging particles. And besides the products of its decay, it contains minuscule radia-tion-emitting specks that can lodge in the lungs. Over many years, they can pose a cancer threat. An E.P.A. study says that some American homes' contain hazardous levels of that it probably contributes to between 5000

and 20,000 cases of terminal lung cancer every year. What to do about all these unseen perils at the home and at the office? Almost all the experts agree that proper ventilation is vital. “Read labels and observe the precautions,” Dr Young advises. “If at all possible, store things that

can produce vapours in places outside the home such as sheds.” Dr Ott sees the need for more research. “Knowledge is our best weapon against indoor pollution,” he says. “We’ve got some indoor sources that could be easily corrected, if we just knew more about them.”