Household Appliances and Indoor Air Pollution

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Household Appliances and Indoor Air Pollution

EarthVision Reports

07/14/99

AUSTIN, TX, July 14, 1999 - According to a new report, sources of indoor air

pollutants can now be expanded to include dishwashers and showers.

Environmental engineers at University of Texas at Austin College of

Engineering say that when tap water contains even trace amounts of harmful

chemicals such as radon, constituents of gasoline, or chlorination

by-products, these chemicals can be transferred from water to the indoor air

through a process called volatilization.

As reported in the journal Environmental Science and Technology , the

researchers ran water containing chemical tracers through dishwashers,

clothes washers, showers, and bathtubs. The tracers were then found in the

indoor air in significant percentages the University noted.

According to the researchers, dishwashers were found to be the biggest

culprit in transferring the chemicals to the air, mainly when the door is

opened after the cycle is complete. The study also found that washing

machines and dishwashers using chlorinated bleaches or detergents may

increase public exposure to chlorinated chemicals through the volatilization

of these additional chemicals.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is currently using the research to

assess public exposures to chemicals, and subsequent health risks, once

thought to enter the human body primarily through ingestion the University

said.

A large number of studies in the past six years have compared indoor/outdoor

concentrations of volatile and hazardous air pollutants. " In every single

study, with just about any pollutant, you find higher concentrations indoors

than outdoors--even in the most polluted cities in the United States, " says

Dr. Corsi, who led the study.

According to the report, trends of the latter half of this century have

negatively impacted indoor air quality. Attached garages can bring

automobile exhaust and stored chemical vapors inside the house. The energy

crisis led to more airtight homes and buildings, allowing pollutants to

build indoors.