Indoor Air Pollution: Making Bread Toasts and Boiling of Water Also Contributes to Air Pollutants
Basic household tasks which includes boiling water, cooking and making toast significantly contribute to making your house a polluted place to live in.
What if we told you, one should refrain from making bread toasts? Well, what could possibly harm in making a toast? But a new study points out that making a bread toast contributes to indoor air pollution. Bread toast and butter or omelette toast is a very common breakfast made in many households. It is easy to make, filling and also nutritious. And a toasted bread always tastes better than a plain slice of bread. But looks like the toasting process is not too healthy in the long run. According to research by the University of Colorado Boulder, basic household tasks which includes boiling water, cooking and making toast significantly contribute to making your house a polluted place to live in. Aloe Vera, Peace Lily and Boston Ferns: 7 Indoor Plants That Will Keep Your Home Pollutant Free.
Marina Vance, Assistant Professor at the varsity has said, "Homes have never been considered an important source of outdoor air pollution and the moment is right to start exploring that. Even the simple act of making toast raised particle levels far higher than expected." Vance and team used advanced sensors and cameras to monitor the indoor air quality of a 1,200 square feet manufactured home. They studied the house for about a month's time and carried on with all the basic household tasks one does at home. Their experiment also included cooking one full Thanksgiving dinner. Scientists Develop Genetically Modified Plant That Can Remove Cancer-Causing Pollutants from Home.
The team measured the indoor concentrations from time to time and found it to be too high. Vance suggested that well-ventilated houses are thus a must because cooking activities contribute to high levels of gaseous air pollutants in the house. These pollutants can cause negative health impacts. Not just the cooking, the cleaning solutions used in the kitchen and bathrooms have organic compounds that escape outside and contribute to ozone and fine particle formation. These products have a greater source of global atmospheric air pollution than cars and trucks do. The researchers presented their findings at the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington.
"We need to re-focus research efforts on these sources and give them the same attention we have given to fossil fuels. The picture that we have in our heads about the atmosphere should now include a house," the researchers said. We have been limiting our understanding of air pollution majorly to vehicle smoke and industrial emissions but it is time we look into our homes too. (With IANS Inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 19, 2019 09:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).