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How Fragrance And Scents In The Home Can Impact Your Overall Air Quality 

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We all can relate to the desire of making our space smell good. There’s a multitude of fragrance options currently on the market that can make any home smell good and fresh. However, it’s important to understand the potential dramatic impact on our home’s air quality that these scent options can have.

According to Svetlana Stevanovic’s recent research and reporting for The Conversation, people spend, on average, 85-90% of their time indoors, and inhale around 20,000 liters of air daily. Air pollutants that exist within our homes can arguably become much more harmful than the ones existing outdoors due to how much more time we spend in our houses. 

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These stagnant indoor air pollutants from seemingly harmless fragrance options can have a major impact on our health and wellbeing, and can lead to issues such as eye irritation, respiratory issues, headaches, and more. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency has also reported that levels of indoor air pollutants can get up to three times higher than outdoor pollutants. 

Home scents are made to fill a space with a particular smell that will make our air smell nice, but it also can mean that we’re intentionally releasing a mixture of chemicals in a closed indoor environment, which can lower the overall air quality in a given space. 

According to Stevanovic, air fresheners alon emit more than 100 different chemicals, some of the most harmful being classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). 

“These VOCs will react with ozone and other indoor oxidants to generate a range of oxidation products, which are potentially toxic molecules. The level of exposure and concentration determines the potential toxicity,” Stevanovic wrote. 

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The type of product and its composition determines the type and amount of pollutants being emitted into the air in your home. All air fresheners produce a high level of VOCs, and legally speaking, air freshener companies don’t have to disclose the chemical composition of their products.

There can be tens or hundreds of chemicals in your air freshener that you wouldn’t even know about because they’re not listed on the product itself. 

“In a study across the United States, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, 32.2% of people were reported to have a sensitivity to fragrance. In those who are sensitive, fragrances are a risk factor for asthma and headaches.”

The best advice when it comes to avoiding an increased level of pollutants in the home is to use fragrances in moderation. When it comes to candles, using soy, beeswax, and any candle that’s labeled as “non-paraffin” and maintaining proper ventilation in the home throughout the day is generally considered to be safe. 

Removing chemical air fragrances, fresheners, and scented candles will have a lasting overall impact on the quality of air in your home. Overall, maintain a level of moderation when it comes to adding fragrance to your home, and consider using air purifiers in combination with ventilation to keep airflow consistent in your home. 

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Severe Cases Of Covid-19 Linked To Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure

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According to a study conducted in 2020 using healthcare data from 4,443 fatal cases of Covid-19, long-term exposure to high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) correlated to an increased risk of severe/potentially fatal cases of Covid-19.

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COVID-19 Pandemic Indirectly Leading To A Reduction In Air Pollution

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The coronavirus pandemic has been causing a lot of industries to completely shut down, which is indirectly benefiting the environment. A lack of industrial activity is temporarily causing air pollution levels to decrease, according to the European Space Agency which released satellite images showing the fall in global nitrogen dioxide levels. 

The sudden shift in atmospheric levels is being referred to as the “largest scale experiment ever” in terms of industrial emission rates in the atmosphere when certain businesses are shut down for long periods of time globally. According to the European Space Agencies (ESA) satellite images, over the past two months, levels of nitrogen dioxide over the planet’s most metropolitan and industrialized areas in Asia and Europe were marked much lower when compared to last year’s data. 

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This is massively significant, as a decrease in these levels is relatively uncalled for, especially considering how fast and advanced the world runs when it’s not in the middle of a pandemic. nitrogen dioxide in general is produced from car engines, power plants, and basically any industrial business that’s known for its gas emissions. nitrogen dioxide is also known to speed up the development of respiratory illnesses.

“We are now, inadvertently, conducting the largest-scale experiment ever seen. Are we looking at what we might see in the future if we can move to a low-carbon economy? Not to denigrate the loss of life, but this might give us some hope from something terrible. To see what can be achieved. A reduction in air pollution could also bring some health benefits, though it’s unlikely to offset loss of life from the disease [coronavirus],” said Paul Monks, professor of air pollution at the University of Leicester.

While the health benefits of this reduction in air pollution may not offset the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19, it can help reduce the overall spread of the virus, as higher levels of pollution in the air causes those with pre-existing health conditions to have an even more compromised immune system. Additionally, individuals with respiratory illnesses, such as asthma, living in these areas that are typically concentrated in nitrogen dioxide will benefit from the cleaner air in the long run. 

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The World Health Organization (WHO) describes nitrogen dioxide as “a toxic gas which causes significant inflammation of the airways,” which is why it tends to intensify preexisting conditions, especially those of a respiratory nature. The biggest drop in pollution levels that also works to support the connection between the coronavirus and the improvement in air quality, comes from Wuhan, China, where the virus initially spread. The city itself has 11 million citizens and is one of the largest transportation hubs in the world, it also has hundreds of thousands of industrial factories throughout it. Now, according to NASA nitrogen dioxide levels have decreased up to 30% when compared to last year!

Other areas of Europe and Asia that support the “largest experiment in history” include South Korea, which is typically dependent on a multitude of power plants and industrial facilities in China. Milan, Italy, one of the most COVID-19 affected countries, has seen a 40% drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions. Many are crediting this to Italy’s current lockdown policy that the country is still enduring.  

In the United Kingdom, road traffic alone accounts for about 80% of all gas emissions, now that the UK has announced their own plans to lockdown, it’s predicted that they’ll see a similar drop as well. While coronavirus may be disrupting a lot of aspects of life right now, at least one small positive is coming out of this entire ordeal, and the planet is healing more and more everyday.

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How Nature Can Help Reduce Air Pollution

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Climate change is a permanent epidemic that the Earth has been enduring for decades. Now, in 2019, it’s the worst it’s ever been, so much so that a lot of the damage is irreversible. Government bodies worldwide have made monetary commitments, policies for greener cities, and have invested in technology and science to help save the huge amount of healthy Earth that has been lost. However, studies show that the best way to regain the natural environment that has been lost, is to use nature itself, as opposed to complex technology. This is especially true for helping areas of the world suffering greatly from air pollution and industrial powers expelling greenhouse gases and other harmful substances into the atmosphere. 

A study published by Physics.org revealed that planting trees and other plants near areas of heavy air pollution can help reduce that pollution by up to 27%! Plants would also be a much cheaper alternative to enforcing the use of green technology to combat negative air emissions. The research conducted measured areas of land near power plants, industrial factory sites, roadways, gas and oil drilling sites, etc. and found that in 75% of the land data collected, growing new plant life near these sites would be the cheapest option to reducing air pollution.

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“The fact is that traditionally, especially as engineers, we don’t think about nature; we just focus on putting technology into everything, and so, one key finding is that we need to start looking at nature and learning from it and respecting it. There are win-win opportunities if we do—opportunities that are potentially cheaper and better environmentally,” said Bhavik Bakshi, lead author of the study and professor of chemical and bio-molecular engineering at The Ohio State University.

The study was extensive; researchers took air pollution data from different counties in 48 out of the 50 states in America. The research compared and contrasted the level of air pollution with the amount of vegetation that was in those areas to begin with. Then, they calculated how much it would cost to add additional trees and plants to those areas, based off different state-wide costs and regulations. They then took the data of the current state of each counties pollution/vegetation levels and calculated the capacity to which the vegetation alleviated and reduced pollution without any additional plants/trees. According to the study, researchers focused on major air pollutants found all over the world; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and any other particulate matter that contributes to smog such as dust or soot.

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Through their calculations, it was found that restoring vegetation to its full potential in each county (based on their specific environmental conditions), could reduce air pollution up to 27%. It’s important to emphasize that restoration would be different for every county. For example, the amount of vegetation restoration that would be needed in a vast farming landscape in Mississippi would be much less than that of a desert environment in California. However, even though the types of landscapes are vastly different all over the world, the research showed that air pollution could be lowered in urban settings just as much as more rural settings as long as the ratio of vegetation is calculated and correctly executed. This conclusion is great news in regard to our planets overall health and restoration. Additionally, it’s important for our health as human beings, and any other living thing on Earth. Poor air quality can lead to diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, asthma, throat cancer, etc. and research shows that areas of the world with heavily polluted air tend to also have higher rates of these diseases for the individuals living there. 

“The thing that we are interested in is basically making sure that engineering contributes positively to sustainable development, and one big reason why engineering has not done that is because engineering has kept nature outside of its system boundary,” Bakshi said.

It’s time that we help fight nature with nature. Human beings made the creations that are killing the planet, and while we’ve thought that more man-made devices can help reverse that damage, maybe it’s time we take a page out of Mother Nature’s book and help let her do the restorative work we all so desperately need.