Shower gels, shampoos, perfumes and other hygiene products are the source of pollution inside our homes. These products contain chemicals that evaporate into the air after use.
The subject of indoor air quality sometimes comes up in the media. This is an important subject since it directly affects our health , but also to the environment. For nearly half a century, studies on the subject have focused a great deal on outdoor air/indoor air exchanges. However, you should also know that we generate indoor pollution unrelated to the outside air.
Many studies have thus evoked the pollution generated by candles and other incense. However, the range of products that pollute our interiors would be much wider , as reported in a study published in the journal Indoor Air in February 2021. The author of this work, Amber Yeoman of the University of York (UK), spoke in an article in The Guardian on 17 December 2021.
As part of this research, Amber Yeoman and her team installed measuring equipment in a bathroom at their university. They also placed pipes in the cabins to study the fumes. The volunteers got the same products, namely a shampoo, a shower gel, a conditioner, a moisturizer, a facial cleanser as well as a deodorant spray.
The amounts of fumes observed were then different. Indeed, people who rinsed the most generated fewer emissions. Among the substances detected by the researchers, we find limonene (a highly reactive hydrocarbon), but also benzyl alcohol and ethanol. For the researchers behind the study, the objective is to warn about the impact of the accumulation of emissions interior , but also to learn more about the interactions between these same emanations, which should be the subject of further work. Remember in passing that the pollution emitted indoors could exceed that of road traffic.
First, lay the blame product pollution to the manufacturers themselves would be appropriate in order to limit the phenomenon. Banning aerosols would also be effective, as would introducing labeling informing about the effects of substances on both health and the water cycle. For Amber Yeoman, the ideal would nevertheless be the development of quality labels to guide consumers towards more responsible purchasing.
