Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air pollution is nothing new. It's been with us since the day they invented "indoors". It's as familiar as lap dogs and dust, as pervasive as the smell of cigarette smoke. So why, in recent years, have homeowners and office workers organized to fight for cleaner indoor air? Why are smoke eaters, purifiers and air cleaners flooding the market? What's new?• There is increased understanding of the long-term health effects of pollutants. Radon, a natural radioactive gas, has always seeped from certain soils and rocks. We now know it's a potent carcinogen in high concentrations.
• The number and complexity of chemicals in the home continues to grow. New products add new compounds to domestic air, compounds whose effects on human health are still unknown.
• There is a new awareness of synergistic danger: the capacity of chemicals to work in combination, affecting health in ways that could not be anticipated from a knowledge of each chemical acting alone.
• In the wake of the energy crunch, and with the help of government conservation programs, Canadians sealed leaky houses to keep in heat — and pollutants — in ever-increasing concentrations.
• Compounding the sealed-house syndrome is the fact that some materials used in the insulation effort are themselves major contributors to indoor pollution. Urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) is perhaps the most infamous example, but caulking compounds, sealants, solvents, glass fibres and fire retardants in cellulose have also been linked to health problems. • There are now indications that the capacity to tolerate pollution is not uniform. It varies from person to person, and with age, exposure and general health.
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December 4, 2008