Chemicals in Everyday Products Rival Cars as Source of Air Pollution
IN THE NEWS
By Monica Amarelo, Director of Communications and Samara Geller, Database & Research Analyst.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018
SNIPPET:
The study “shows that everyday consumer choices can have an impact on air quality,” Christopher Cappa, an engineering professor at the University of California at Davis and a co-author of the paper, said in a news release. The release also notes that for one type of pollution particularly harmful to health – tiny particles that lodge deep in the lungs – such products contribute twice the emissions as auto exhaust.
VOCs include many different hazardous chemicals, including formaldehyde, toluene and acetone. They come from a wide array of products, including cleaners, air fresheners, pesticides, composite wood or particle board, glues, sealers, finishes, fiberglass, carpets and gas stoves. VOCs are also found in some of the products we use on our bodies every day, like hairspray, rubbing alcohol, nail polish, nail polish remover, colognes and perfumes.
VOCs can irritate your eyes and nose, or trigger asthma attacks. Possible long-term effects include liver, kidney and central nervous system damage, and cancer. Because air pollution ranks fifth as a health risk factor worldwide, it is critical to identify, quantify and control the major sources of VOC emissions. But unlike auto emissions, regulation of VOCs in consumer products is lagging.
The federal government has not updated the law that regulates the personal care industry since 1938. While the European Union has banned or restricted more than 1,300 ingredients in personal care products, the U.S. has only banned or restricted less than a dozen.
Full article:https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/02/chemicals-everyday-products-rival-cars-source-air-pollution
Agelbert NOTE: A study has just come out that SHORT TERM EXPOSURE to polluting particles of as low as 2.5 microns actually increase mortality among seniors and children in the USA. Although the study does not specifically say it, I am certain the internal combustion engine is front and center as the main causative agent. The study covered SEVERAL decades and the use of the super computer at Harvard for number crunching, correlation and collation to isolate mortality increase cause and effect.
Radio Ecoshock has the details in a podcast with the lead scientist on the team, Dr. Francesca Dominici, that published the study.The pro-fossil fuel industry propagandists will not be able to talk their way around this exhaustive and detailed study.
That study is a massive nail in the coffin of the internal combustion engine, whether as the power for a car, a generator, or a power plant.
VOCs in home cleaning (and other) products are a serious health problem, but the nternal combustion engine is a much greater threat to human health and longevity.