
Air Pollution in Our Homes - kingkawn
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-hidden-air-pollution-in-our-homes
======
pdog
If you're concerned about indoor pollution, I highly recommend house plants.

In NASA research[1], common house plants were found to remove toxic agents
such as benzene and formaldehyde from the air.

Some of the best air purifying plants: Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant),
Dracaena reflexa (song of India), Nephrolepis exaltata (Boston fern),
Sansevieria trifasciata (snake plant), and Chamaedorea seifrizii (bamboo
palm).

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study)

~~~
martey
From
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-p...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-
plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/)

 _Recently, Waring and his colleagues reanalyzed all 195 studies that have
examined whether houseplants can filter the air. They found that some types of
plants can remove higher amounts of VOCs than others. But once you factor in
the effects of working in a large room, none of the plants are able to do
much._

 _Waring told me to imagine a small office, 10 feet by 10 feet by eight feet.
“You would have to put 1,000 plants in that office to have the same air-
cleaning capacity of just changing over the air once per hour, which is the
typical air-exchange rate in an office ventilation system,” he said. That’s 10
plants per square foot of floor space. Even if you chose the most effective
type of VOC-filtering plant, you would still need one plant per square foot,
Waring said._

~~~
nextos
That is spot on. The only solution is to build houses with better materials
that release less VOCs and/or use an air filter with a good activated carbon
stage.

Carpets have become very popular. But cheap ones release tons of VOCs due to
fire retardants and anti-stain treatments.

I've switched to a house built in the Scandinavian style, with oiled wooden
floors and simple soap-treated furniture. Not only beautiful, but also lacks
the typical brand new smell. Theoretically much better in terms of nasty VOCs.

~~~
swampthinker
Most modern European housing also has to abide by strict energy efficiency and
air leakage standards, so they come with heat-recover air exchange systems.

~~~
lxmorj
Air leakage standards in which direction?

~~~
swampthinker
Building envelopes need to be tighter

~~~
lxmorj
Got a Netatmo CO2 sensor recently and i think that needs to be rethought. That
shit builds up fast inside a well sealed system.

~~~
swampthinker
That's why there are requirements around installing an air exchange system.

------
downtide
I always wonder about small acrylic hairs and such that float about the house.
In a bright room just flex your jumper, there's thousands of these weird
impurities, and I can't imagine they can be filtered out easily before or
after getting into the lungs.

The biggest shocker is when you disturb loft insulation. They claim it's not
terrible (specifically if undisturbed), but floating glass strands can't be
all that nice.

~~~
frutiger
They don’t need to be filtered. They get trapped in mucus. The constant flow
of mucus from all your mucosal membranes pushes these outwards.

In the case of your lungs they get delivered to the great acid bath that is
your stomach.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
This. We evolved in an environment with plenty of particulate matter. It's the
exotic stuff that has no analog from the time when we evolved that causes
problems.

~~~
firethief
As opposed to acrylic?

~~~
jacobush
Without knowing for sure, I imagine acrylic to be inert and most like any
other dust on the time scale it takes for our bodies to expel it. But I could
be wrong. Certainly, there _are_ modern dangerous materials which do affect
us, such as asbestos and heavy metals.

------
jly
Indoor air quality means different things to different people. There are so
many chemicals and particles that qualify as air 'pollution' that I find it
helpful to rank how important they are. This article does a good job of
quantifying the damage by pollutant, using a metric called 'Disability
Adjusted Life Years': [https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/which-indoor-air-
polluta...](https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/which-indoor-air-pollutants-
matter-most)

You can see that while there are a lot of things to consider, PM2.5 is by far
the most dangerous. Surprisingly to me, mold is actually the next most
dangerous, implying that indoor humidity control is also very important.

------
graeme
I got a laseregg 2, and highly recommend it or a similar monitor. It's been
very eye opening to see how various scenarios affect air pollution:

* frying indoors generally swiftly puts things in the unsafe range. Especially if it led to browning.

* a neighbour's bbq would do the same if the window was open

* idling truck on the street for construction? Unsafe range

* surprisingly, the toaster would raise levels if it was on high enough to brown toast

Really helped me make better decisions about when to open/shut windows and how
to cook.

I got the laseregg after reading reviews of air quality monitors used in
china. Apparently it holds up well to specialized lab sensors. It has a
battery and can be moved around

~~~
salex89
I've recently borrowed a similar device, and this one also measures
formaldehyde. To be honest I'm quite anguished by it, because I can't find any
indoors object with formaldehyde concentration less than 0.1ppm, which is the
"safe" (by some legal standards) margin. Only outside or in a room with a wide
open window it comes down under. It's even borderline higher in buildings not
recently renovated. I've tried researching how dangerous is 0.3ppm or such, or
how to keep it under control, but no luck. All sources are very academic...

~~~
graeme
What device measures formaldehyde?

I've ordered an awair, I think it does vocs but not sure it does them in any
specificity.

And I think the only real solution is venting. Open a window. Other than
identifying the source and removing it of course. But in many places I think
it's wall materials, furniture, etc

Dhh had a talk on indoor air quality you may find useful.

~~~
novok
There are many devices out there on amazon, since formaldehyde inside your
house == bad is a chinese health meme where air meters will measure it
specifically.

[https://www.amazon.com/Air-Pollution-Formaldehyde-
Detector-T...](https://www.amazon.com/Air-Pollution-Formaldehyde-Detector-
Temperature/dp/B078ZS8RVL/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=formaldehyde&qid=1557356477&s=gateway&sr=8-9)

------
code_duck
I have serious food allergies and celiac disease in addition to
allergies/sensitivities to ingredients of cleaning products. I have problems
entering are staying in a lot of environments, pretty much anywhere that I
don’t have control over the air or access to fresh air.

The results on the toaster are not surprising. I’ve worried about toast smoke
in coffee shops before because small amounts of gluten or allergens can make
me sick.

It’s great that they are measuring concentrations of chemicals in the air
related to cleaners. Something like someone spraying air freshener or mopping
the floor with Pinesol makes me feel ill, and continued exposure will make me
sneeze and my eyes turn red and so forth.

It’s amazing how casual people are about this. I sat down at the bar the other
day and immediately the bartender started spraying Windex all over and wiping
a wall. I had to rinse out my nose, and gained a headache. It definitely
ruined the experience for me, but most people don’t think twice.

The possibility is raised that “The dominant source of VOCs in Los Angeles is
now emissions from consumer products, including toiletries and cleaning
fluids.“ Again, not a surprise. A statistic that quote to people is that about
5% of VOC emissions in the United States come from dryer vents, from mostly
unnecessary chemicals in detergent and dryer sheets. Almost every single
chemical product that is packaged for consumers and sold in plastic bottles at
stores makes me very, very sick. Conditioners, shampoo, clothing detergent,
pesticides, air freshener, candles soaps, fabric softener, floor cleaners,
dish soap, glass cleaner. The annoying thing is that while the base
formulation of these is bad enough, the part that is the worst for me is the
completely unnecessary fragrances.

~~~
stinos
_It’s amazing how casual people are about this_

Only if you think of it that way really, considering a) the majority of people
don't have problems and b) long-term effects of those products are sometimes
not known at all, let alone known by the general public. Don't forget things
like allergy information for food etc are fairly recent developments even in
the western world. And studies showing/hinting at links between cleaning
produtcs and premature deaths etc are also fairly recent I think, so
unfortunately the general population isn't really aware of the dangers.

~~~
code_duck
Sure, I distinguish between my specific problems and everyone else. Of course
the common food items I’m allergic to are all over. That’s no surprise.

What I’m really objecting to is the needless chemicals and fragrances. There
is growing awareness that fragrances bother some people. There’s a growing
trend of fragrance free workplaces, for instance the entire state government
of Oregon.

City of Portland: “Fragrance Free Workplace Employees who are sensitive to
perfumes and chemicals may suffer potentially serious health consequences,
triggered by exposure to scented products. Consequently, employees are asked
to refrain from the use of personal scented products in the workplace where
the sole purpose is to produce a scent, such as perfume, after shave, and
cologne and to avoid the use of strongly scented personal hygiene products
such as laundry soap, dryer sheets hand lotion, powder, hair spray, and
deodorant. All City managers and supervisors are expected to enforce this
rule. An employee who is experiencing health consequences due to another
employee’s use of scented products should report the problem to their
supervisor to ensure appropriate action is taken.”

We can divide fragrance problems into allergies, sensitivities, and the mere
fact that fragrance is distracting. In the bar example, I’m there to consume
an expensive spirit that supposedly has a price based upon the flavor.
Spraying a bunch of chemical cleaner in the air with a distracting fragrance
right when I’m about to consume in my drink is a poor choice in that regard.
You also see this in cannabis stores – some of them burn incense. When they
are charging sometimes three times as much for certain products, mostly based
on the aroma and flavor, why would the store be filled with fragrances that
coat everything, dominate the air, and even soak into the product? If you were
attending a winetasting, and there’s a heavy air freshener scent or somebody
there is wearing an extremely strong cologne, it distracts from the entire
purpose of the event, which is tasting wine, not perfume. It’s like shining a
light and someone dies when they’re trying to read.

I woman I dated for years used to have problems with her mother blasting the
bathroom with some sort of Clorox cleaner. She would complain of headaches and
watery eyes. Her mother paid absolutely no attention, as if her headaches and
watery eyes were somehow less important then sanitizing the bathroom floor. I
don’t understand that attitude. Now that more testing has been done on
cleaners like that, it’s not that question at that concentration of toxic
chemicals in the air exceeds safety levels in such a situation. It baffles me
that common sense doesn’t tell people this, too. Reading the label would help.
The concept claimed by manufactures that people use things like raid and
roundup in accordance with labeling is ludicrous.

As far as premature death, there is a long way to go from healthy to dead. The
spectrum in between is a wide range of discomfort and illness. Studies have
long showed a correlation between use of indoor cleaners and fragrances and
respiratory problems such as asthma. Also, the trend of natural and non-toxic
cleaners has been on the rise for years. So, there should be some awareness in
the average person that certain consumer products pose a hazard if not for
everyone for some people.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5773620/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5773620/)

But yes, the general population is definitely not aware of the dangers. I
would say that’s for many reasons. Certainly manufactures are not seeking to
spread information they would expose them to liability or make them change
their formulation. Instead they do things like cover up severely toxic
contaminants in their products and lobby against labeling. And then, given the
propensity of society to engage in activities that everyone knows can be
harmful such cigarette smoking, alcohol, speeding, eating fried foods, fast
food and so forth, it’s clear that most people don’t heed warnings of well-
known dangers. Cigarette smoking causes all sorts of illness, impairment and
discomfort before death, but to hear people talk, the only risk is death.
Social pressure and marketing are stronger.

------
hcurtiss
I've been exposed to air toxics risk assessments through my work. The problem,
in my mind, is not the toxics we're facing in our homes (or even outdoors).
It's that humans are really bad at understanding risk. Let's imagine an annual
Thanksgiving dinner presents an excess lifetime cancer risk of 2 (made up
number -- probably much lower). Many people would find that unacceptable. But
why? Many activities we engage in every day present much more material risk.
For instance, this article says the odds of dying in a car crash are
approximately 10.7 per 100k. That is 10,000 in a million. Yet we gladly get
behind the wheel every day.

Noncancer effects are gauged in terms of multiples of the lowest observed
effect level or the no observed effect level. If across a spectrum of
exposures, we observed no effect at a certain level, that would be our NOEL.
Of course, the observed effect could be a runny nose. 100x the NOEL could
still be a runny nose (it could, in fact, be no adverse effect at all), but
people see 100x the benchmark level and freak out.

In my mind, we really need to reshape this discussion around toxics. People
are willing to suffer great costs to avoid hazards that do not, in fact,
present material risks.

[1] [https://www.cars.com/articles/are-the-odds-ever-in-your-
favo...](https://www.cars.com/articles/are-the-odds-ever-in-your-favor-car-
crashes-versus-other-fatalities-1420682154567/)

~~~
simple_phrases
> For instance, this article says the odds of dying in a car crash are
> approximately 10.7 per 100k. That is 10,000 in a million.

There are ~30k automobile deaths in the US per year. Your figure is off by
several orders of magnitude.

~~~
hcurtiss
I would point you to the quote in the article I cite: "'Motor vehicle traffic'
deaths in the U.S. in 2013, the most recent full year of data available,
totaled 33,804, for a death rate of 10.7 per 100,000, according to data from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." I believe the denominator is
confined to drivers. No matter, there are dozens of other good examples to
support my point that ordinary activities are much riskier than the levels of
risk we talk about in the context of air toxics.

~~~
coolgeek
The problem was with your math. 10.7 per 100k != 10,000 in a million.

10.7 per 100k == 1.07 per 10k == 107 per 1000k (1m)

~~~
hcurtiss
You're correct. Moving too quick. And that, in turn, is still two orders of
magnitude greater than 2. I think my point still stands. Thanks for the help.

------
surfmike
I got a air quality monitor when we had the California wildfires, and I was
shocked to learn that my air quality was worse indoors when cooking than
outdoors during the wildfires. (I am now in the process of getting a properly
vented range hood instead of the dinky recirculating one we have).

~~~
jly
I bought an AQI / PM2.5 monitor and was shocked to find the same thing. I
placed it in an upstairs bedroom, far removed from the kitchen, and the PM2.5
readings jump to unhealthy levels within minutes or cooking, even that far
away. HVAC systems do a great job of circulating bad air throughout the home.
I've also observed measurable CO level increases in the upstairs while running
a gas oven, using a low-level monitor.

I've also come to the conclusion that a vented range hood is really an
essential for indoor cooking of any kind. It should definitely be the #1
priority for any home to improve air quality.

------
not_a_moth
I have a sensitivity to certain cooking fumes. I've tried to assess it
objectively like it's a nocebo, which would be great if it were.

There are two cafes in SF I used to frequent who do their cooking in the same
main space as guests, do not have much if any ventilation, and, if I was there
hacking on my laptop around lunch time, I would always get headaches and need
to leave. (one is a trendy workspace cafe, that I feel bad naming). It has not
happened at other SF cafes despite a lot of working-in-cafes. I also used to
have a roommate who didn't like the sound of our ventilation fan and wouldn't
open the kitchen back door (to the outdoors) because of the cool air. Anytime
she cooked with the oven I would get a headache and need to leave the
apartment, while having no problem with the third roommate's cooking who
preferred to ventilate.

~~~
graeme
If you got an air quality monitor you'd likely see shocking levels in those
scenarios. I got a laseregg two, and normal frying can send indoor air quality
to unhealthy levels if something gets a bit browned. Even with a fan on.

It's portable and has a battery. Quite eye opening to test it in various
scenarios.

~~~
jly
I'll second the LaserEgg 2. Great product and I've also had some eye-opening
experience with cooking and indoor AQI. These used to be tougher to find in
the US but I think you can get them on Amazon, now.

------
macNchz
I've found many houses I've been in to be extremely stuffy and stale
inside...I think most American homes fall into a bad middle ground for indoor
air quality: well enough sealed to trap indoor pollutants, but lacking the
more sophisticated HVAC systems that can efficiently exchange fresh air.

Additionally, it seems that many Americans also really hate opening their
windows (and indeed the climate often doesn't really lend itself to opening
the windows, in some places ever). I grew up in a drafty old house with no
A/C, and even as a kid felt other people's–newer, not drafty, air
conditioned–homes had an airless feeling.

It's been interesting to follow the recent studies on indoor CO2 and other air
pollution...I don't feel quite so crazy for wanting to open the windows all
the time when visiting family.

~~~
e40
Agreed, but many houses in the Bay Area were built in the 1920's (both the
houses I've owned were). The windows in my house are not sealed well. The
double-hung sash windows have space for the rope and I can feel a draft on
windy days.

All this talk of CO2 recently has made me value that my house is drafty.

~~~
kaybe
It would be nice to have a house where you can regulate the draftyness better.
In some seasons, draftyness is a feature, not a but, in others, not so much.

------
telotortium
> CTRL+F "smoke"

> CTRL+F "smoking"

> 0 results

The dominant source of air pollution for almost all of human history has been
smoke of one sort or another (see: historical dramas that show indoor
light/heating with candles and fireplaces, [https://samharris.org/the-
fireplace-delusion/](https://samharris.org/the-fireplace-delusion/)), to the
extent that I personally doubt banning secondhand smoke indoors would have
made much difference to non-smokers' health before open wood fires and coal
fires were phased out.

I suppose it's a notable achievement of our society that both industrial
pollution and domestic smoke has been reduced so much that VOCs from other
sources indoors are our greatest worry.

~~~
graeme
Indeed, I recently read about the health impacts of nicotine, as distinct from
smoking. There are many, including cardiovascular trouble.

But as far as I can tell, nicotine doesn't cause lung cancer. That's from the
smoke itself - any smoke.

------
mensetmanusman
I have used 3M Filtrete room-air purifiers as white noise generators for my
kids since they were born > 7 years ago. It’s amazing how much is in the
air...

I believe growing up in a dusty environment contributed to my asthma...

------
PascLeRasc
Off-topic, but this lab got $4.5M for equipment and still couldn't pay the
students analyzing the data? What's up with that?

~~~
Harvey-Specter
"Student volunteer" probably refers to undergrad students who are working on
their theses.

~~~
SilasX
Ah, then it's okay not to pay the going rate for the labor.

~~~
danaur
A lot of students benefit from this unpaid labor. I know many people who
volunteered in labs to get real experience that they translated into high
paying jobs else where.

Those people would not be able to get the job if it was paid

------
orliesaurus
The narrative in this article is heavy, but basically if I understand this
right..cooking food indoors pollutes the air, and because you are in your
kitchen indoors, you're polluting your own living space's air?

~~~
fma
The kitchen exhaust fans in American homes are very weak (at least, every one
I've lived in, and visited...). When cooking, you can smell what people are
cooking, so it's not really doing its job of pulling the air out. I upgraded
begrudgingly to a Chines brand called Fotile. It's expensive and I fought
tooth and nail with my wife because my natural instincts was not to trust
Chinese brands I never heard of. Admittedly, it's one of my best purchases. We
can be frying stuff on the stove and standing 5 feet away, you won't smell it.

And like the link below says...it's the biggest appliance company I've never
heard of. I have the one pictured on the left.

[https://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/chinese-
manufactur...](https://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/chinese-manufacturer-
fotile-designs-exhaust-hood-actually-exhausts.html)

~~~
sushisource
God I fucking hate the nonsense "range vents" on the bottoms of microwaves
that is typical of many American homes (mine included). They do _literally
nothing_. It's infuriating that in my new-construction, rather nice, home I
get this pretend bullshit in my otherwise lovely kitchen.

I'm tempted to get a proper range hood just because this infuriates me so
much, but the cost of redoing the whole cabinet above the stove is steep.

~~~
fma
Lol I was in the same boat. House is new construction, GE appliances... I took
down the microwave and replaced it with the Fotile hood. The microwave (its
huge...) sits on my counter.

Needed to do minor custom wood work to mount and make it look nice, but it's
doable. My dad was a carpenter so it was easy to get done.

------
tomohawk
If you want to reduce the pollution in your home, stop using dryer sheets,
fabric softener, Downy, or any laundry detergent that is scented.

Instead of fabric softener, use white vinegar as a liquid fabric softener in
your washer. It will make your clothes smell fresh - not vinegary.

That scent that comes off of clothes that are treated with scented detergents
and softeners is air pollution.

~~~
soulofmischief
Care to explain _why_? Or what mechanism specifically is contributing to
pollution? Seems like "pollution" might need some defining, too.

------
rayiner
I am on the fence about research like this. On one hand, as an engineer by
training it's hard for me to countenance the idea that any research (properly
conducted) could be bad. On the other hand, people have been cooking indoors
since time immemorial, and even things like toasters are more than a century
old. If they were dangerous, we'd know by know. The risk is that such research
gets oversold by the media into a panic, as we have seen time and again. Look
at what "science" has done for nutrition in the last few decades--upset a
bunch of traditional norms, without offering any meaningful advance. Are VOCs
(for the most part, "smells") going to be the subject of the same circus as
salt and fat?

~~~
jartelt
People in some countries have been cooking with indoor wood-fired stoves
forever, yet we know for sure that these stoves are bad for respiratory
health. That doesn't mean all the research is wrong!

I think the big take away is that you should pretty much always turn on the
exhaust hood over your stove top when you cook. Doing so removes many of the
particles generated by cooking.

~~~
bluGill
In most homes the "exhaust hood" doesn't vent to outside. It filters the big
particles out and mixes the rest. I'm not sure if this is better or not, but
the difference isn't much, and after a short time they are the same.

~~~
jly
The big particles are not what is most dangerous. Range hoods that recirculate
air are not helpful. All kitchens should have externally-exhausted vent hoods,
and it's even more important when using gas ranges, since a lot of harmful
combustion byproducts are also being created (NO2, CO, etc). Sadly as you
point out, this is far less common than it should be.

------
vallode
I've always tried to air my home out as much as I can while cooking. Pretty
much all windows are open. Article reaffirms my core avoidance of things like
toasters/microwaves.

~~~
NickBusey
The article does mention toasters as a particularly bad culprit, but the word
`microwave` doesn't appear anywhere in the text. Curious how you have arrived
at this connection between two very different devices.

~~~
vallode
Erroneous jump to conclusions from my side, I think I naturally group electric
appliances in the household in the same 'bad' category. I admit that is an
error on my part.

------
Rudebwoy10
It took me a while, but I eventually ended up getting a indoor air quality
monitor. I'm in California, and when the fires happened, I expected my brand
new condo building to have decent filtration. According to my Awair monitor
([http://getawair.com](http://getawair.com))... my indoor PM2.5 (Fine Dust)
went up to 150 ugm3. 150! We definitely had a chat with the building after
that.

But yeah, cooking, cleaning, air fresheners... all of them negatively affect
my home air quality. Just need to ventilate at the right times. After the DHH
video about this topic, I pulled the trigger and got the monitor, which
fortunately also tracks CO2 and chemical (VOCs).

I'm glad to see 2 topics about air quality trending today. I had to finally
register to get in on the one topic I actually know about.

------
skookumchuck
My house is a bit drafty, and I couple that with a very effective air cleaner
on the HVAC system, and convince myself that it pays off with breathing
cleaner air.

------
ezconnect
I think the article is selling home air purifiers

------
forgotmypw3
It's not just cooking, it's all the spray cleaners, liquid detergents, and so
on, too.

------
LYSTech
And what about the lack of natural light? Has anyone seen this?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yv8gcFaJL0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yv8gcFaJL0)

~~~
cmrx64
This ad campaign from a window company?

