What pollutes the air the most?
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Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Scientists have found that deodorants, sunscreens and insect sprays are responsible for much of the smog hanging over cities, writes Daily Mail… A study by American scientists showed that the volatile ingredients used in these products are usually obtained from fossil fuels. When millions of people actively use these products, these particles significantly increase ozone pollution – even more than transportation.
Are consumer products the main pollutants?
A team of scientists took air samples in New York in 2018, which showed that flavored personal care products provide almost half of 78% of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated by humans.
Scientist and study co-author Georgios Gkatselis was initially skeptical of the idea that consumer products could play such a large role in ozone pollution. “I rode my bike to work in Boulder, Colorado, looked at all these cars, and was convinced that they must be the main source of volatile organic compounds, – said Gkatselis. – But after we rode our van across New York and watching our instrument displays, Matt Coggon, another lead author of the study, and I often shouted in amazement at what we saw. “
New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses the situation in New York to study the environment in other cities, such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
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EPA
What New York is suffering from
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A team of scientists traveled around cities in the southwestern United States, taking ground measurements and measurements with a mobile laboratory to determine how much VOC is in personal care products. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the main ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone and are mainly found in human-made chemicals used in paints, pharmaceuticals and personal products. They are released as gases, which can cause health problems in people of all ages with lung conditions such as asthma.
Big cities are not the only problem
An important takeaway is how much VOC emissions from consumer products increase as urban densities increase, and how much these chemicals actually play a role in ozone formation. Paints, cleaning products and personal care products represent 78% of Manhattan’s VOCs, compared to 22% of VOCs produced by transportation.
Similar measurements were also taken in Boulder, Colorado, to see if the same results would be observed in a less dense city – 329,316 people live in Boulder and 1.63 million people in Manhattan. The researchers found that consumer products with VOCs still account for 42% of man-made VOCs, but transport is the largest contributor at 58%.
The current generation of air quality models do not accurately model both emissions and chemical reactions in the atmosphere of these consumer products, Coggon said, and need to be updated to fully reflect their impact on urban air quality. In areas where ozone pollution is a problem, he said, new strategies to control VOC sources may need to be developed.
Another group of scientists published a study in February 2021 that went into more detail about the effects of air pollution and said it could increase the risk of heart and lung disease.
A group of scientists at Harvard University estimated the exposure of 63 million US adults aged 65 and over to particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease on an additive scale among the elderly in the United States.
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