February 18, 2019

Ordinary homes can be as polluted as big cities

Study Finds -Just when you thought staying in was one way to avoid pollution from surrounding cities and heavy road traffic, a new study is sounding the alarm on the cleanliness of the air inside our own homes.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder say the average house is prone to “indoor air quality levels on par with a polluted major city,” and everyday activities like cooking and cleaning may be to blame. The authors believe that chemicals found in common household substances are even seeping outdoors, creating more air pollution than cars and trucks do.


The researchers connected a network of air quality sensors inside a 1,200-square-foot manufactured home on the University of Texas campus in Austin during the summer of 2018. Vance and her team occupied the house over a month, carrying out daily activities such as cooking meals and cleaning up the place with common goods. They even recreated a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Preliminary results from the study show that air quality levels were so poor at the end of the study, the researchers had to recalibrate their sensitive instruments almost immediately. The shocking finding led the researchers to suggest American homes need to be better ventilated, particularly when residents are cooking and cleaning. Boiling water on a gas stove, for example, led to higher levels of harmful particulates and gaseous pollutants.

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