Cooking, cleaning … Our domestic activities generate chemical particles in the atmosphere, which contribute to its pollution. So much so that indoor air quality in a home can be comparable to that of a large polluted city, researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder (USA) have found. In addition, these molecules in suspension – from shampoos, perfumes, household products – do not stay in homes, end up escaping and participating in global air pollution.
“Homes have never been considered a major source of outdoor air pollution and the time has come to start exploring this avenue”, say the authors of the study, published in the journal Science February 16.
Simple tasks, high standards
In order to carry out their research on air quality, the scientists placed sensors and cameras in an apartment on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. For a month, members of the research team took turns carrying out various daily household activities. They organized a full Thanksgiving dinner there. Thus, they discovered that the simple task of boiling water leads to the creation of airborne polluting particles … with the negative health effects that go with it (irritations, exacerbations of allergies, increased cardiovascular risks).
The particle concentration levels measured inside have indeed surprised scientists. “Even the simple act of toasting bread produced much higher levels of particles than expected”says Marina Vance, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado. The final results are still being analyzed.
An underestimated situation
the indoor air quality problem still remains largely unknown. According to a 2013 Harris poll, 9 out of 10 French people rated the air quality in their home as “good”. 60% of those polled even considered the atmosphere of their house less polluted than the outside one. Yet this one would be 5 to 10 times less polluted than indoors. In 2014, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) estimated the number of premature deaths at nearly 20,000 per year caused by the most popular indoor air pollutants.
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