Environmentalism shows why ‘mental’ is part of the word. Josh is on the case. This story appeared in The Times:
Shampoo ‘as bad a health risk as car fumes’
Shampoo, oven cleaner, deodorant and other household products are as significant a source of the most dangerous form of air pollution as cars, research has found.
Scientists studying air pollution in Los Angeles found that up to half of particles known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) came from domestic products, which also include paint, pesticides, bleach and perfumes.
These compounds degrade into particles known as PM2.5, which cause respiratory problems and are implicated in 29,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. Traffic had been assumed to be the biggest source of air pollution. The new findings, published in the journal Science, led to warnings that countries may struggle to hit pollution targets, with most tackling vehicle emissions.
Mavbe there’s another explanation? Studying history always helps.
Why Did a 1542 Spanish Voyage Refer to San Pedro Bay as the ‘Bay of the Smoke’?
In 1542, a tiny armada of two ships sailed up the California coast, flying the flag of Spain. On board were two-to-three-hundred men, including seamen, soldiers, merchants, and Indian and African slaves.
Disappointment was the expedition’s destiny. The viceroy of New Spain had dispatched the ships north in search of legends that had little basis in reality: the mythical Seven Cities of Gold and the elusive Strait of Anián (Northwest Passage). Failing that, Spanish authorities hoped the armada might discover a coastal route west to China and the Spice Islands; little was known then about the shape or size of the Pacific Ocean, and some speculated that North America’s western coastline curved round to meet with Asia.
Still, the voyage — commanded by a onetime conquistador named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo — produced the first written observations of the Los Angeles area. They also bestowed on it one of the region’s first European names: Baya de los Fumos, or Bay of the Smoke.
…
Some sources suggest that Baya de los Fumos may be Santa Monica Bay, but most point to San Pedro Bay. In either case, the land described here is the same: the Los Angeles Basin. It is worth noting that, despite the persistent misconception of Los Angeles as a desert, the region’s first European visitors described it as “good” country. From their ships, the sailors likely saw a well-watered, lushly vegetated plain teeming with animal life.
The smoke’s origin remains a mystery. It may have been cooking fires burning in the many Tongva villages that dotted the Los Angeles coastal plain and interior valleys; in the sixteenth century, Southern California was one of the most densely populated regions in North America, and the area’s inversion layer would have trapped campfire smoke then just as it traps automobile exhaust today.
Read the whole story here
Sounds like a mental health problem over modern civilization. Particulate pollution requires a mechanism to aerosolize it, that is, get it into the air. Sitting around, liquids do not make PM 2.5 particulates. They make gases.
while the story as presented IS crap..
the point of the toxic indoor air is pretty correct
new homes without openable windows or ceiling high and floor level airvents anymore..
once we used pretty much unscented soap and shampoo etc
now everything from detergent fabric softeners and use of indoor dryers throwing the scent n chem out into the homes air also
multiple chem scented personal items used daily.
and then add the home cleaning chem literally dousing many homes on a daily basis
very few of which ever did get safety tested but got GRAS rated..and then add synergistic combos that are totally UNtested for effects
asthma/allergies anyone?
there IS a real and present health effect for indoor air pollution.
you dont have to stop washing or cleaning but there really are safer products than the massmarketed smelly ones.
vinegar bicarb and plain soaps as a start..and you save a LOT of money as well.
degassing formaledhyde from carpets foam furniture etc and the antistain fabric treatments really are a problem
As a chemist I have always been amused by the caveat “known to the State of California”, which implies, as does the phrase ‘your mileage may vary’, that Truth may be different elsewhere and for other people.
Mileage varies greatly depending on where an how you drive. I’ve been able to beat the EPA “estimates” for most of the cars I’ve owned.
In the motoring world, it’s a well known fact that the drive cycle the EPA uses to determine mileage is a joke and in no way whatsoever reflects how people actually drive.
When I was about 11 years old I found out that I could augment my stock of chemicals by sending off postal orders for a few shillings (old money) to a place in the East End of London. No restrictions . My favourite was aniline, sent in small bottles through the post . By the time that I got to University its handling by students was banned. Still here though.
I once scanned all the orbituaries in “Chemistry in Britain”, which listed age at death , and came to the conclusion that if you avoided accidents, usually on the roads , in your twenties , chemists could expect to live to nearly 90.
They should list the names of people who die of PM2.5 pollution in the newspaper everyday. (Hint: they do)
Who worries about being irradiated while travelling to remote locations? Even when going through the magnetic pole? Practically nobody does.
No, they worry when going to Fukushima and the tiny amount of Cs-137, because it isn’t present naturally.