Home"?
Indoor Air Pollution
house, identified and moved all of the dangerous products to a high,
locked cabinet. You’re safe now, right? Well, not really. Actually the
chemicals in many of those products may be slowly poisoning you and
your family, pets included.
Since the end of WWII there has been a dramatic increase in the number
of man-made chemicals (tens of thousands of them), many of which are
in common products used regularly in our homes. During that same
time period there has also been a dramatic increase in the number of
health problems in people (especially children) and pets including
cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, allergies, immune
disorders and neurological and behavioral disorders such as ADHD.
Is the rise in the number of chemicals that we’ve brought into our homes
and the rise in the incidence of certain diseases just coincidental?
Probably not. Actually, there is a growing body of evidence that indoor
air pollution and exposure to chemical vapors has a significant impact
on our health.
Indoor air is a dynamic mix of various chemical, biological, and
particulate pollutants from a variety of sources. This includes pollutants
such as bacteria, viruses, yeast, mold, dust and dust mites, tobacco
smoke and chemical vapors. Recent EPA studies have shown that the air
inside of the average home is typically 3 to 5 times more polluted than
the surrounding outside air. And indoor air can become even more
polluted after painting, waxing floors, using cleaners or disinfectants, or
installing carpeting.
One of the reasons for this is that since the energy crises of the 1970’s,
houses and office buildings have been built virtually air tight to help
reduce heating and cooling costs. Soon after this trend in building
started, doctors noted significant increases in vague health complaints
with symptoms such as asthma, coughing and wheezing, headache, and
eye irritation. Often times the symptoms would disappear when the
person left the home or office, only to return when the person re-entered
the site. At first, many physicians thought the symptoms an individual
was experiencing were attributed to psychological factors, but in time it
was recognized that poor indoor air quality was often to blame and in
1983 the World Health Organization characterized "sick building
syndrome".
Many of the chemicals found in homes belong to a class of chemicals
called volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). VOC’s are ubiquitous in
our environment and we are exposed to them on a daily basis. Many of
these chemicals are known to cause cancer, liver disease, kidney disease,
and CNS depression and other neurological problems. Sudden death
has also been reported in people (teenagers especially) "huffing"
products containing certain VOC’s in an attempt to get high.
VOC’s are used in a wide variety of consumer products such as paints,
glues, adhesives, pesticides, cosmetics, personal care products, laundry
care products and cleaners and disinfectants. Dry-cleaned clothing and
carpeting are also major sources of VOC pollution in homes and offices.
When products containing VOC’s are used with inadequate ventilation,
the chemical vapors will remain in the air and circulate throughout the
house, or they will be absorbed into carpeting or other furnishings and
be slowly released over time. Just storing certain products in your home
can also contribute to poor indoor air quality as some chemicals "outgas"
from their containers. An example of outgassing is the strong chemical
smell present in the cleaning products aisle of the grocery store or the
pesticide / fertilizer aisle of the lawn and garden store.
In an experiment several years ago, breath samples from adults living in
New Jersey were analyzed for several VOC’s and 89% of the samples
tested positive for benzene and 93% were positive for perchloroethylene
(a dry-cleaning chemical). Many other organic solvents were also
detected.
The long-range health implications of this chronic low level exposure to
these chemicals is not known, however many scientists and physicians
believe that it may be contributing to the rising cancer rate in the United
States and is definitely contributing to chemical sensitivity in some
individuals.
Since there is no agency that tracks pet morbitity and mortality as in
human medicine, it is really impossible to know for certain the extent to
which indoor air quality affects the health of our pets. However, it is
reasonable to assume that pets are impacted as much as or possibly even
greater than the people in the household since many animals spend the
vast majority of their time indoors and consequently inhale and absorb
more toxins over their lifetime. In addition, pets (and children) "inhabit"
the lower third of the living space where many of the toxins accumulate.
For example, there have been cases of animals developing neurological
problems after laying on carpeting that was recently dry-cleaned.
So despite all of our advances in veterinary medicine and nutrition over
the past few decades, certain cancers are more common now in pets and I
frequently treat animals with allergies and immune-mediated diseases.
Interestingly, a research study conducted in the 1970’s compared chest
radiographs (x-rays) between rural and urban dogs and found no
differences in the distribution of lung diseases between these two groups
in young dogs, however older urban dogs (more likely to be indoors
and/or exposed to greater amounts of pollution) exhibited greater lung
disease than older rural dogs. Could the constant exposure to low levels
of chemicals in the environment be involved in some of these illnesses?
No one can say for certain at the present time, but I think it is likely and
will be proven in the future. (continued on page 2)
children live in unhealthy
environments?
Click here to read the
World Health
Organization's Fact Sheet
EPA fact page on
Indoor Air Quality
list of symptoms
associated with poor
indoor air quality.
EPA fact page on
Volatile Organic
Compounds
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Teach your child about chemical safety in the home.
Click here to take the EPA's "Kids Home Tour"
and how they may be making your family sick.
Click here to watch the video "Toxic Brew"
a 30 minute documentary produced by the CBC.