United Arab Emirates – Researchers study indoor air pollution

November 23, 2009 · 0 comments

November 21. 2009 9:30PM UAE – If you think you can avoid air pollution by staying indoors, think again.

Furniture, carpets, paints and air conditioning units can all pollute the air we breathe indoors, said an American researcher who is leading a project to study the air quality in 600 homes across the Emirates.

For the next four months, researchers will study each selected home for one week, installing air quality monitors to measure concentrations of potentially harmful pollutants.

The study follows a report last month that showed indoor air pollution was responsible for 250 deaths a year in the Emirates.

“It is an effort to find out what is happening to the population in the last 40 years as urbanisation has increased,” said Dr Karin Yeatts, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr Yeatts is heading a team of 68 researchers who will work in collaboration with the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and the UAE University’s department of community medicine.

While the UAE has been developing infrastructure and rules to control outdoor air quality, there are no guidelines or regulations for indoor air.

Among other things, the study aims to identify the most prevalent pollutants. Its results will be used to help develop a national strategy for environmental health.

The study, which already collected data from seven houses, will include homes in all seven emirates, and only the homes of UAE nationals.

The survey team will measure concentrations of seven pollutants. Two of them formaldehyde and toluene come primarily from indoor sources.

Formaldehyde, a probable human carcinogen known to cause severe allergic reactions, can be found in pressed-wood products, some types of foam insulation and tobacco smoke.

“Some types of furniture and carpets can [give off] formaldehyde,” Dr Yeatts said.

Toluene is emitted by solvents, paints, adhesives and other building materials.

The other five pollutants nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide and particulate matter come primarily from outdoor air that filters inside.

A home’s proximity to industrial areas, major roads and construction activity can also affect the level of those pollutants in indoor air, Dr Yeatts said.

Barbara Roux, an air quality expert in Dubai, said the study was a good first step. She recommended that a committee be formed to identify pollutants of concern and group them in categories depending on the level of risk they pose.

“It is a huge responsibility and no one can do it alone,” said Mrs Roux, the chef executive of Air Environmental Solutions, a private firm.

In her native France, she said, air quality experts, health professionals, chemists and architects had worked together to identify a list of 56 prevalent pollutants.

“Every day we breathe an average of 15,000 litres of air that is mostly from enclosed locations where we spend up to 90 per cent of our time,” she said. “The average time spent indoors is even higher in the Gulf countries, for obvious reasons.

“Research shows that indoor air is three to 10 times more polluted than the outdoor air.”

The research teams will also gather information from residents about health complaints that could be attributed to air quality, and about their diets.

The study will not cover biological pollutants, which include hundreds of species of bacteria and mould-forming fungi. The World Health Organisation has connected biological pollutants to allergies and asthma.

Source – The National

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