Mopping Can Create Air Pollution That Rivals City Streets
hubie writes:
A news article over at Science talks about new research demonstrating that after only a few minutes of mopping the floors indoors using a delightfully-lemon-scented cleaner can generate as many harmful airborne particles as vehicles driving on busy streets.
The air in homes, schools, and offices can sometimes be dirtier than the air outdoors, even in cities with pollution problems. Any kind of burning-candles, incense, cigarettes-is bad. Gas stoves and cooking food also spew unhealthy particles into the air, which can cause asthma and other health problems when breathed in. Other significant sources of indoor air pollution include personal care and cleaning products, whose fragrances contain volatile organic chemicals that react with ozone in the air to form small particles known as aerosols.
One molecule of concern is limonene, a commonly added to cleaners and furniture polish to help remove oil and grease. The lemon-scented molecule reacts readily with ozone, an outdoor pollutant that is the main ingredient in smog. When ozone wafts into buildings, it reacts with limonene and similar molecules called monoterpenes, turning them into peroxides, alcohols, and other molecules that grow into airborne particles. Small particles can lodge deep in the lungs, irritating cells and-at high enough exposure-leading to health problems, such as asthma. In vulnerable people, particulate air pollution can cause heart attacks and strokes.
The study did show that as the particles grow in size, after a few hours they eventually fall out of the air onto surfaces where they are harmless.
Journal Reference:
Colleen Marciel F. Rosales, Jinglin Jiang, Ahmad Lahib, et al. Chemistry and human exposure implications of secondary organic aerosol production from indoor terpene ozonolysis, Science Advances (DOI: http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj9156)
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