APES Notes 7.5 - Indoor Air Pollutants

Summary

The video, led by Mr. Smees, delves into indoor air pollutants, covering sources and effects across both developing and developed nations. It highlights the reliance on subsistence fuels in developing countries and industrial chemicals in the developed world, leading to different pollution sources. Asbestos, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, radon, dust, mold, and lead are discussed with emphasis on their health impacts such as lung cancer and suffocation risks. The importance of proper ventilation and taking preventative measures, like using professionals for asbestos removal and installing detectors for carbon monoxide and radon, is underscored. Creative solutions for pollution control, like sealing cracks to prevent radon entry and keeping mold at bay, are provided. Finally, the significance of lead exposure prevention, especially for children, and the necessary steps for detecting and mitigating these risks are summarized.

Highlights

• Indoor air pollution varies significantly between developing and developed countries. 🌐
• Subsistence fuels cause deadly air pollution in homes with poor ventilation. 🚪
• Asbestos, though phased out, remains a threat in older buildings. 🏢
• Carbon monoxide suffocates silently due to poor ventilation. 🔇
• Volatile organic compounds irritate and can be found in everyday products. 🛒
• Radon is a quiet cancer risk, seeping through foundation cracks. 📉
• Dust and mold exacerbate respiratory conditions; regular cleaning is essential. 🧹
• Lead in old paints poses a significant health risk, especially to children. ⚠️

Key Takeaways

• Subsistence fuels lead to severe indoor pollution in developing nations. 🌍🔥
• Developed nations battle industrial chemical pollutants indoors. 🏢⚗️
• Asbestos needs professional removal due to cancer risks. 🏠
• Carbon monoxide is dangerous yet silent; use detectors. 🚨
• Radon gas, a cancer risk, can be mitigated by sealing foundations. 🏡🔬
• Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning from old paints. 🎨
• Ventilation is key! The solution to pollution is dilution. 💨
• Formaldehyde in home products can cause respiratory issues. 🚫
• Always address water leaks immediately to prevent mold. 🚰

Overview

Indoor air pollutants present diverse challenges depending on local circumstances. In developing countries, reliance on subsistence fuels like wood and charcoal leads to harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide and particulate matter, often due to poor ventilation. In contrast, developed nations face issues mainly from industrial chemicals found in cleaners, deodorizers, and outdated building materials like lead-based paints.

Specific pollutants like asbestos, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde have precise health impacts. Asbestos, remaining in old insulation, poses risks of lung cancer and should only be handled by professionals. Carbon monoxide, a byproduct of incomplete combustion, leads to asphyxiation, underscoring the need for detectors. Formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds can cause respiratory issues, emphasizing careful product choice and maintaining good air quality.

Preventative steps are vital for maintaining indoor air quality. Sealing cracks can reduce radon infiltration, protecting against its carcinogenic effects. Proper ventilation helps in diluting and removing various pollutants, such as VOCs and carbon monoxide. Regular cleaning minimizes dust and mold growth, common in moist, unventilated areas, supporting overall respiratory health. Additionally, lead exposure, especially hazardous for children, demands careful management and modernization of old infrastructure to eliminate sources.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Indoor Air Pollutants The chapter covers 'Indoor Air Pollutants' and aims to identify different indoor air pollutants. It begins by comparing the sources of indoor air pollution in developing versus developed nations, highlighting that developing nations often rely on subsistence fuels due to lower access to cleaner energy options. The chapter also promises a skills practice segment focused on interpreting trends and data to draw conclusions.
• 00:30 - 02:00: Sources of Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Nations This chapter discusses the sources of indoor air pollution in developing nations, focusing on the use of subsistence fuels such as wood, charcoal, dried plant matter, and animal manure. These fuels are economical and readily available to local residents, often at no cost. However, their combustion releases harmful pollutants including carbon monoxide, particulate matter, NOx, and volatile organic compounds into the air. The issue is exacerbated when these materials are used indoors, posing significant health risks.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Sources of Indoor Air Pollution in Developed Nations The chapter discusses the sources of indoor air pollution in developed nations, emphasizing the role of poor ventilation in homes, especially during cooking and heating activities. It highlights the serious health risks involved, including toxic and deadly air pollutant buildup, and mentions startling statistics that approximately 3 billion people globally rely on subsistence fuels for cooking or heating, making it a leading cause of death worldwide.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Particulate Matter and Asbestos The chapter discusses the analysis of particulate matter and asbestos as a leading cause of death, with estimates of 3.2 to 4.3 million deaths annually due to the combustion of biomass fuels. It highlights the human health consequences and differences in fuel reliance between developing and developed nations. Developed nations tend to rely on commercial fuels like natural gas, which are combusted in controlled, airtight conditions.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Carbon Monoxide The chapter 'Carbon Monoxide' discusses the different sources of air pollutants in developing versus developed nations. In developing countries, air pollutants primarily arise from the combustion of biomass, while in developed nations, they mainly stem from industrial chemicals such as cleaners, deodorizers, and possibly old paint containing lead. The importance of proper ventilation to prevent the build-up of these pollutants indoors is also highlighted.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Volatile Organic Compounds This chapter discusses volatile organic compounds and their sources in different regions. In developing nations, indoor air pollutants often stem from burning fuels like biomass for cooking or heating. In contrast, developed nations face challenges with pollutants from industrial products used within homes, with cigarette smoke being a common issue. The chapter also touches on particulate matter, specifically asbestos, and the risks posed by suspended solids in indoor air.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Radon Gas The chapter discusses radon gas as a type of particulate matter, mentioning its resemblance to dust and its specific impact, primarily focusing on asbestos (though it's not radon gas, it appears to be a misinterpretation). Asbestos, a long silicate particle, was historically used in insulation owing to its excellent heat retention properties. Its presence in homes, particularly in attic insulation, is illustrated. Over time, studies have linked asbestos exposure to health issues such as lung cancer and asbestosis.
• 11:00 - 13:30: Dust and Mold The chapter titled 'Dust and Mold' discusses the presence of asbestos in older buildings. Although phased out due to its dangers, many buildings still contain asbestos-filled insulation, found in ceilings, walls, and around water heaters. The chapter explains that while asbestos is not extremely hazardous if left undisturbed, it becomes a threat once particles are airborne and can be inhaled. Therefore, it is recommended to replace asbestos insulation to prevent potential respiratory issues.
• 13:30 - 16:00: Lead The chapter emphasizes the dangers of asbestos insulation and stresses the importance of having it removed by trained professionals rather than homeowners. It explains that asbestos is linked to lung cancer and highlights the necessary precautions and equipment, such as respirators and ventilated areas, required during its removal process to ensure safety.
• 16:00 - 17:00: Conclusion and Practice Question This chapter discusses carbon monoxide, explaining that it results from the incomplete combustion of nearly any fuel source. Incomplete combustion can occur due to insufficient oxygen to produce CO2 or because the temperatures are not high enough to completely combust the fuel. A graphic is mentioned to illustrate hydrocarbons burning under low oxygen conditions.

APES Notes 7.5 - Indoor Air Pollutants Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey everybody it's Mr smees and welcome to Apes video notes for topic 7.5 which is indoor air pollutants our objective for the day is to be able to identify indoor air plants and the skill that we'll practice at the end of today's video will be explaining Trends and data in order to draw a conclusion so we'll start out today by talking about how sources of indoor air pollution differ in developing nations versus developed Nations so remember from our energy unit that in developing nations there's much more Reliance on what are called subsistence fuels remember subsistence
• 00:30 - 01:00 fuels are things like wood charcoal dried plant matter or animal manure that can be really easily gathered by residents and so this is beneficial economically because it's really cheap or maybe even free if they're taking it you know from the nearby ecosystem but a lot of air plants are released when these materials are combusted so those air plants would uh include carbon monoxide particulate matter nox and volatile organic compounds and this is especially problematic because a lot of times these subsistence fuels are busted indoors so
• 01:00 - 01:30 we have a little picture here to help us remember that a lot of times whether it's cooking meals or heating the home these fires are built indoors with poor ventilation and that's going to lead to buildup of really toxic and deadly concentrations of these air pollutants in people's homes it's estimated that about 3 billion people globally cook with subsistance fuels or use subsistance fuels for heating and this is uh a leading cause of death globally actually it's either the second or third
• 01:30 - 02:00 leading cause of death when you look at different analyses of this and so estimates have ranged from 3 and2 to 4.3 million deaths annually from the combustion of biomass fuels and so it's a really important human health consequence that we need to understand if we look at developed Nations we're going to rely more heavily on Commercial fuels and so these are things like natural gas which you purchase from utility and so they're typically combusted in furnaces or other you know burning methods that have pretty airtight conditions where the
• 02:00 - 02:30 ventilation you know carries these fumes outside they don't build up in the home typically and so that means that in developing nations we have different sources of air pollutants and those would be primarily industrial chemicals so these are things like cleaners or deodorizers like fze it could even come from paint if you're in an old home that still has lead in the paint and so the main air source or the main indoor air plant are going to be very different in developing and developed Nations again in developing nations they're going to come more the combustion of biomass
• 02:30 - 03:00 fuels indoors whereas in developed Nations they're going to come more from the Industrial Products that we fill our homes with next we'll take a look at particulate matter and a specific particle called asbest so remember that particulates are just little bits of suspended solids in the air and when we're talking about indoor air pollutants these are going to be primarily smoke and so this could be from you know combustion of biomass indoors for cooking or heating as we talked about in developing nations in more developed Nations it's often times things like cigarettes smoke but it
• 03:00 - 03:30 could even just be dust and then finally ASB bestus would also be considered a type of particulate matter but we'll talk about it specific impacts here so asbest is a long silicate particle that was previously used in insulation due to its high heat holding capacity and so it was a really good insulator and so we packed ASB bestus into insulation as you can see here in the Attic of this home and the problem is that studies over time began to link asbest to lung cancer and asbestosis in
• 03:30 - 04:00 and so this is a big problem so it was phased out of use but it still remains in older buildings and so many buildings still retain this ASB bestus filled insulation either in their ceilings or in their walls or even around their water heaters sometimes now it's not terribly dangerous until the asbest is Disturbed or until the insulation is kind of jostled and the asbest particles make it out into the air and then into the respiratory tract so what this means is it's not a major threat but it should be replaced to ensure that that doesn't
• 04:00 - 04:30 happen and so what we need is trained professionals to do this so this is a really important point you should not remove as bestest insulation yourself as a homeowner so you need a train professional with the proper you know ventilation equipment a respirator probably uh they'll typically seal off the room where the asbes filled insulation is being removed they'll have proper ventilation venting a lot of the air from this room outside and so big takeaway here is that ASB bestus is linked to lung cancer and should be removed by by trained professionals next
• 04:30 - 05:00 we'll talk about carbon monoxide so carbon monoxide comes from the incomplete combustion of pretty much any fuel source and so incomplete combustion refers to when not all of the fuel source is burned and this can be either due to lack of enough oxygen to create CO2 or low enough temperatures that don't completely combust the fuel source so have a little graphic here to help us remember this we can see that we have a hydrocarbon being burned under low oxygen conditions and that's going to
• 05:00 - 05:30 produce carbon monoxide now the problem with carbon monoxide as it relates to human health is that it causes Suffocation it's classified as an ex asiant um meaning it causes asfixiation or Suffocation and this is because carbon monoxide is going to bind really well with the hemoglobin in red blood cells so we have a diagram here that can help us understand this so on the left part of this diagram we have a hemoglobin and it is bound to some oxygen and it's also going to carry carbon dioxide out of your cells but
• 05:30 - 06:00 because carbon monoxide is so good at binding that hemoglobin it basically displaces or kicks the oxygen molecules out of the hemoglobin or off of the hemoglobin I should say and that's going to lead to a person suffocating they're not going to get enough oxygen and so it can be fatal now in these high concentrations where it builds up that is where this becomes really a problem so if there's poor ventilation uh and the carbon monoxide is not able to circulate and leave the room or leave the building that's when it can really
• 06:00 - 06:30 become a problem for humans the other problem is that it's odorless and colorless so you don't necessarily know that carbon monoxide is leaking into your home or being produced from a fire that you're having indoors so in developed Nations the major source of carbon monooxide would come from your furnace which is burning natural gas usually and it may be releasing carbon monoxide into your home instead of outside of your home due to improper ventilation now you can solve this issue or you can become aware of this issue by having a car monoxide detector so it's a
• 06:30 - 07:00 little device that you would plug into an outlet in your home and just like your smoke detector is going to detect if there's smoke in the air your carbon monoxide detector will detect if there's carbon monoxide and it will beep and let you know of the problem in developing nations sources of carbon monoxide come more from the combustion of biomass indoors so remember that people in developing nations use more subsistance fuels they're more likely to be having a wood fire or a charcoal fire in their home and so that's going to produce carbon monoxide in the home and that can be a problem if it leads up to you know
• 07:00 - 07:30 high concentrations developing in the home next we'll talk about Vox or volatile organic compounds so these are chemicals used in a bunch of different Home Products and they're going to really easily vaporize remember that that v in Vox stands for volatile meaning that they vaporize easily so they easily enter the air from the products that they're used in and then they can irritate your eyes they can inflame you know your air passageways so your bronchioles or your lungs and they can cause respiratory problems for people so one common source would be
• 07:30 - 08:00 adhesives or sealant so often times carpets or particle board or couches will use adhesives or glues in them to hold them together and often times those products will give off FAL organic compounds two great examples here would be again carpet so the adhesives used to glue carpet down and particle board that goes into walls or ceilings or Furniture a lot of times will have something called formaly formaly is commonly added
• 08:00 - 08:30 to sealant and to glues or adhesives and Studies have begun linking for mahide to cancer in humans so it is in the process of being classified as a carcinogen meaning that it causes cancer in humans and so this is a problem and this is an indoor air pollutant that we have to be aware of when we talk about other sources cleaners would be a really common source of volatile organic compounds so again think of just spraying a cleaner in your home think of how powerfully you smell it and anytime you're smelling a compound really
• 08:30 - 09:00 powerfully in the air that's probably a vola organic compound and that's because it's volatized so easily and entering the air so easily uh and so deodorizers like f breze would even fall into this category and then we have Plastics and fabrics so a lot of times Plastics or Fabrics in your home will be treated with sealants or adhesives or other products that give them the properties that make them last a long time and those can give off follow to organic compounds as well next we'll talk about an air plant that can be really harm armful which is radon gas so radon gas
• 09:00 - 09:30 is a radioactive gas that's given off by the decay of uranium that's naturally found in rocks underground now Granite is a rock type that's especially known to give off rate on gas so what happens in terms of this becoming an indoor airplant is that cracks in your basement or in your foundation of your home can allow this radon gas that's naturally produced underground to enter your home then it can kind of rise up with the warm air coming from your furnace or enter your ventilation system and get dispersed throughout the home so we have
• 09:30 - 10:00 a helpful diagram here that can help us kind of visualize this so we can see that the uranium naturally containing these rocks first breaks down to radium and then the radium decays into radon and then anywhere where there's a crack in your foundation or in your basement that can allow this gas to enter your home it can also seep into groundwater though so if you have well water you may want to have that tested for Radon and see if the radon gas is entering the groundwater source which would then be entering your drinking water source
• 10:00 - 10:30 it's the second leading cause of cancer in the United States and so after uh cigarette smoking or tobacco smoke it is going to be the biggest cause of cancer and so it's a carcinogen and so it's a really problematic air pollutant that we want to be aware of and so what do you do to figure out if you have rad on gas in your home well the EPA recommends using an Airborne uh tester that will basically be a little device carried around your home and it will give off a certain noise or an indication if there is radon present in a high enough level to be dangerous to you and so what
• 10:30 - 11:00 should you do if it's detected well you can prevent it from coming into your home by trying to seal the foundation so you could use a sealant to you know up the holes basically or the cracks where air and where gas may be entering your house through your basement of your foundation uh and you can establish better ventilation so you can if you know it's present and it is coming in through your foundation you can try to ventilate the home better and get more of that air going outside uh and so a phrase I like to remember when it comes to air plants and really all plants is
• 11:00 - 11:30 uh the solution to pollution is dilution and so anytime you can increase the ventilation you're going to help decrease the health consequences of that plant so the same is going to hold true for Radon gas next we'll talk about dust and mold so dust is a name given to find particles that enter the air and actually a lot of dust in in homes is dead human skin cells so that's kind of an interesting uh fun fact to think about next time you look at a Dusty part of your house um but the problem is that they enter the Airways in our homes when
• 11:30 - 12:00 we or our actions or our you know air movement disrupts them then they can enter our respiratory tract so if they're not trapped or filtered out by nose hairs or mucus they can enter the bronchioles or they can get down in the lungs and cause inflammation it can worsen asthma worsen COPD and so it's an air pollutant that we should be concerned about and try to limit the amount of next we have mold mold is a living organism so it's a type of fungus and mold is going to thrive in conditions that are wet and moist and uh
• 12:00 - 12:30 dark and not well ventilated and so if you have an area like a leaky faucet behind your sink and it's dripping down underneath the cabinet or your shower is leaking out underneath your lolium or you're flooring in your bathroom those are prime places for mold to grow so here's a picture that can help us visualize this so it looks like someone's bathroom where looks like a type of black mold has established itself underneath their lenium it's probably dripping from their shower or
• 12:30 - 13:00 from their toilet or their faucet and so that's a problem you want to take care of this and black mold is especially problematic because it's a mold type that's known to release spores into the air so it's not just going to stay underneath your flooring or behind your refrigerator it's going to release spores that can enter the air that can enter your lungs and be really irritating and really problematic and so what do you do to get rid of it well the first step is just to spray a cleaner on the mold and actually physically Wipe Out the mold and remove remove it and
• 13:00 - 13:30 then you want to fix the problem that created the mold in the first place which is usually a water or a moisture Source that's getting trapped somewhere and so you can try to fix the leaky faucet or the leaky shower head you can try to ventilate the area better so you can use a fan to dry it out you can also maybe purchase a dehumidifier to try to keep the whole area more dry and less moist and you know then just staying on top of basic cleaning if the area is easy to reach and so all of those would be solutions to try to prevent mold from establishing yourself in your house and
• 13:30 - 14:00 finally we'll wrap up our discussion of indoor air plutons today by talking about lead so lead was formerly used as an addtive to paint prior to being phased out by the EPA in 1978 and so older homes are far more likely to contain lead paint still than newer homes so how does it get into the human body well the paint chips off the walls especially in areas that have a lot of activity and a lot of disturbance like window sills and then children will often times put these paint chips into their mouth so you know children of course are curious and they like to put
• 14:00 - 14:30 things in their mouth but the paint chips also have kind of a sweet taste to it and so it can be really problematic to have young children in a home that has lead paint in the wall still and so it can also be inhaled as dust though so the lead can become attached to dust particles that then get breathed in through the air it can enter water sources and uh Flint has kind of become infamous for this uh lead Water Crisis that happened a few years ago and while that's possible and anywhere where there's lead pipes that lead can flake
• 14:30 - 15:00 off or be scraped off from the pipes and enter the Water Source it's a lot less common than lead paint lead paint is still by far the pro predominant way that lead enters uh the human body and causes lead poing and so why are we concerned about this well especially in children lead is a neurotoxicant and so lead will damage the developing ner nervous system it can cause a learning disabilities and brain development delay especially in younger children because their bodies are smaller and so each
• 15:00 - 15:30 kind of particle of lead they inhale or that they ingest is going to be you know more toxic to their body because it's so small and also because their nervous system is developing and so it's really kind of a double whammy effect um when children are exposed to lead so what can we do about this problem well you can remove lead paint from your home and you can do this by scraping it off you might use a heat gun and a scraper here to you know chip away at the old paint and then safely dispose of it you should use a vacuum cleaner to vacuum up a lot of the Dust while you're doing this and then if
• 15:30 - 16:00 we're talking about lead uh in water sources municipalities Like Flint need to go through and figure out where there are lead pipes in the ground still dig them up and replace them with an alternative that does not contain lead and so copper is a com common alternative and that way there's no chance that lead is going to be flaking into the water and giving people lead poisoning when they drink their water so for practice ofq 7.5 today I want you to take a look at this graph what we have is in blue the number of children tested
• 16:00 - 16:30 for lead in red we have the number of children who have a confirmed blood Le level above 10 micrograms per deciliter and if you look over on the right side you'll see that that's expressed as a percentage of the total children tested and then in green we have the percentage of children who test with a blood lead level elevated above 5 micrograms per decer so the question we have here is explain a cause for the trend in the confirmed blood blood levels above 10 microG per deciliter so that's
• 16:30 - 17:00 the red line as a percentage of children tested from 1997 to 2015