Avoid Air Pollution

[circular]

[For some reason couldn't post more than three images in one post...]

To put this in some perspective, we spend a lot of time discussing how we might approach the characteristics found in pre-industrial environments, diets, light exposures and so on, so to undue the damage caused by the many rather severe disconnects between our genomes and our lifestyles. Without intending to veer off into any heated debates about climate change (pun intended), according to this source, pre-industrial levels of CO2, for at least about 10,000 years, were 280 ppm. The same source further down offers this graph to show what happened from the industrial revolution until 2010:

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This morning I moved my living room monitor outside to see what levels on my patio facing the nearby traffic were and found them roughly what one can expect of fresh air today, 450 ppm, CAVEAT: these monitors from Elgato (Eve Room) measure CO2 and VOCs to come up with a 'CO2 equivalent'. I believe they have a white paper about that, but I haven't taken the time to read and understand it. So my measurements may or may not be a good apples-to-apples comparison with strictly CO2 readings:

Moved Living Room to Outdoors.jpg

So the blips in air quality in the bathroom after my showers, which have been as high as 2565 ppm, appear to be quite significant and undesirable.

[circular]

Here is what happened with a monitor in the laundry room. I did one load of white sheets and towels using Biokleen laundry soap. Since my husband's elbow bled all over the sheets I used about 1/4 cup bleach. I very seldom use bleach, normally choosing Grab Green bleach alternative, but it's not as effective in such situations. I closed the door to the living area as always because it's quieter, and the other door of this small laundry room goes to the garage. When I do use bleach I tend to think if I just use a little and run away it'll be okay. So here's what happened:

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I then opened the garage door to the outside and propped open the door from the laundry room to the garage, left and closed the door to the living area again. It's coming down quickly with the fresh air ventilation, but this won't be an energy efficient 'solution' most of the year.

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Next I'll start with clean air in there and do a load with just Biokleen.

[circular]

Maybe I should note that the display doesn't always line the ppm counts up right.

[circular]

I realized I'd forgotten to run a second rinse which I always do if I use a little bleach, in an effort to not leave any in the fabric. So as the ventilation was improving the toxic air situation, I ran the washer again with a rinse. This shot just shows, I think, that there is bleach left in fabric if you don't rinse it extra (assuming it's not something mechanical to do with the washing that is contributing to the small elevation during the extra rinse cycle.

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Since many don't always use bleach but do use commercial laundry detergents, sometimes load after load, I'll also do a run with commercial detergent, but it may not be today.

[Fiver]

Hi circular. Very interesting air quality results for VOCs.

As for the CO2 readings (ppm), pre-industrial levels were indeed 260-280ppm, on average. And we recently broke the 400 ppm threshold, again on average in the atmosphere. But CO2 levels vary dramatically in our local areas at ground level due to car exhaust, room occupancy and room air exchange rates, etc. Levels in a parking lot or at the drive through window of a fast food restuarant could easily be >5,000-10,000 ppm. OHSA has guidelines for indoor CO2 levels. I sometimes monitor my classrooms; students come in and levels skyrocket. (I like to think that's why they doze off...but.....I suppose it could be me!) Levels in the atmosphere certainly alter temperatures. However, I've never heard of CO2 levels in these ranges directly impacting health on inhalation. Really high levels, yes - yawning, anxiety, etc. But I would think at normal indoor levels CO2 changes might just be clues about other, more problematic health concerns...like poor air recycling or combustion sources or even particulars like PM2.5.

I wonder if the washer/drier impacts air quality via ozone production from the electric motors. You could test an empty load. Oh, if you have a gas drier that would contribute, of course.

It's the PM 2.5 particles that I worry about most.

[circular]

Thanks Tom, I appreciate your thoughts and experience!

For the initial laundry room experiment I didn't run the dryer, but I've thought how a gas one may affect results also.

I was interested that my patio levels were what is standard for fresh outdoor air these days. That much alleviated some unfounded concern I've had that we're living too close to the road and must be bathed in its toxins (at least under the weather and traffic conditions - Monday morning rush hour - when I tested). However (!) I'm still only measuring VOCs, and no doubt the Elgato monitor doesn't measure all VOCs. I'm going to be returning these and getting a monitor that tracks both VOCs and PPM2.5 and below. That will tell me more because even if VOCs on the patio are okay, particulates may be really high. It doesn't matter much because I don't spend any time outside there since I hate road noise with a passion. Darn hyperacusis.

I've been assuming that the closer we can get to pre-industrial levels the better, even if all the science isn't there. I think it's an example of where common sense can get to a conclusion a lot faster than science, but I could be wrong.

Just curious, do you teach sciences? Do you show your students what happens to the air when they all come in the room to educate them? It would be interesting to run an IQAir in the classroom (1 or more depending on the size) and see if the AQ is better as well as their attention, not to mention performance. Maybe IQAir would loan you some units to run an informatl experiment like that and maybe lay the groundwork for a formal one. Think what it could mean for their sales in the field of education!

Totally agree the indoor levels point to underlying issues. It's those issues I'm troubleshooting so I can address them. I've become more and more chemically sensitive over the years, and I think that if the chemicals I can smell affect me so much, so do the ones I can't smell, but I realize that isn't logical. I haven't found a way to describe what it feels like when synthetic chemicals I can smell in the air hit my nose and sinuses, but there is something very physically offensive and illness producing about it that apparently not everyone experiences. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many women, and more and more men, traipsing around in public places trailing a cloud of perfume, and I wouldn't have to walk through vast clouds of neighbors' dryer sheet exhaust occasionally flowing over the sidewalk. Ugh, public health nuciences! (How do you spell that, I'm beyond autocorrect ) The people themselves aren't a public nusience (hmm, no better) but the synthetic products and the choice to use them in public are, to me and other chemically sensitive people. This isn't meant to be rude but to raise awareness as I try to walk my own talk more

[circular]

Today for my shower I used the bathroom ceiling fan. I don't normally use it because it's a contractor grade fan that's loud, and I live in a dry climate and have always figured the moisture in the air would be good for me for the time I'm in there. Little did I know. The result is better. This implies that a higher CFM ceiling fan in the bath would improve things even more, but it would still leave me wondering what's happening inside the shower when I'm in there, right under the water as it comes out. I can't put a monitor there.

Our house has a water softener and as I mentioned I use a cheap, big box store chlorine filter at the shower head. I've run our city water through all the retail tests I've seen and it passed everything (not to mention the water company's online data all looks good), but I gather water has much more in it than these tests account for. I'll probably get a better filter that addresses more chemicals in the water and see if that improve things. It's interesting to see that with the fan the worsening air quality was more gradual and the clearing more rapid. Science and home equipment geeks are probably thinking, 'You had to run tests to figure that out'?

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[cdamaden]

Hi Circ, I believe there may be an effect where the water vapor is binding with the pollution and then condensing in your detector, thereby concentrating the levels.


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[circular]

Thanks cdamaden! Do you mean that the VOCs were there when the monitor showed excellent air quality, but diffuse enough not to be an issue until the ambient humidity increased? Then would the same baseline VOC levels have been different for someone if their overall ambient humidity were different? This would mean more humid environments would concentrate VOCs more than dry ones and thus be less healthy? I'm also guessing that if the VOCs concentrate in the increased humidity at the detector, they are also concentrating in my sinuses where the humidity would also, presumably, have increased?

[cdamaden]

I’m suggesting that the pollutants are being concentrated at the measuring device. I’m not sure if that is representative of what you’re inhaling but that would make sense. I’m thinking about how pollution levels drop when it rains. One way to check would be to use a humidifier with deionized water and see if you get the same result as your shower with tap water. All speculation on my part.
Chris


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