Md. Aynul Bari, University at Albany – Air Pollution in the Home
Is there air pollution in your home?
Md. Aynul Bari, assistant professor in the department of environmental and sustainable engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Albany, digs into this question.
Md. Aynul Bari joined the Department of Environmental & Sustainable Engineering (ESE) at the University at Albany as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2018. Bari has been involved in assessing emerging air quality issues in urban and industrial areas in order to explore the need for addressing clean air strategies to support initiatives of achieving sustainable air quality. His current research focuses on understanding ambient levels and sources of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), influence of energy development on air quality and atmospheric deposition, long-term trend analysis, source characterization and apportionment and low-cost air pollution sensors. Other research interests include residential wood burning, particulate air pollution, indoor and outdoor behavior of air pollutants and air toxics, and public health risk assessment.
Air Pollution in the Home
We all know that poor air quality can be linked to health problems including asthma, allergy and respiratory diseases. When we are outdoors, we are exposed to several air pollutants coming from different sources like traffic, industry and wood burning smoke. Much attention has been given by government and regulatory agencies to tackle urban air pollution. However, there has been a growing awareness as well as public health concerns about the quality of air we breathe inside of our homes.
As we know from time-activity patterns, American adults typically spend more than 60 percent of their time inside their home. Different daily activities and sources within the home contribute to our exposure to air pollutants, such as particles and volatile organic compounds (or VOCs).
To understand the levels and potential sources, we undertook a study in Canada in the capital city of Alberta and measured 24-hour indoor samples in 74 homes during the winter and summer of 2010.
From this study, we found outdoor-generated sources were important contributors to indoor particles. Some sources for this include the oil and gas industries, soil dust and wood burning smoke. On the other hand, carpet dust, cleaning activities and a number of pets were important indoor sources. If we look for VOCs, we found more than 70 percent of indoor VOCs came from sources within homes. These included household products, combustion processes (cooking) and off-gassing of building materials.
The take-home message is this: if we know the important sources of air pollutants in our homes, we can take actions to change our daily activities and minimize our exposure to sources, as well as improve the quality of indoor air and our health.
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Thank you for your important work in investigating indoor/outdoor sources that affect indoor air quality. Here where we live in the Hudson Valley, one of the worst health threats is woodsmoke pollution, whether it be in the winter from residential wood heating, or in the warmer weather from outdoor firepits/ campfires. We must do more to educate people about the serious health risks associated with burning wood (including premature death), regulate/ban this practice, and work toward true, clean heating technologies.
Thank you for your comments. I agree with you. Residential wood burning is indeed an important contributor to both ambient and indoor air pollution. More work to be done to better understand the origins of wintertime wood burning sources and associated health risk and to encourage people for using cleaner technologies instead of traditional ones (old fireplaces, wood stoves). We do need strict regulation/ban on any open burning practices (including winter agricultural/industrial burning and summer campfires).
As a local capital region radon professional, I would advocate everyone testing their homes for elevated radon.
Great to learn about your work, especially targeting the indoor environment. There is a lack of indoor quality data in U.S. homes. Currently, we at Florida Solar Energy Center along with LBNL and PNNL undertaking a national effort to characterize indoor air pollution by measuring a suite of indoor pollutants and how pollution levels are changing with different types of mechanical ventilation (and lack thereof) in homes built after 2013.