Personal care products are the largest contributor when its comes to aerosol pollution.
Air fresheners, disinfectants, deodorants, hair sprays, inhalers we used a variety of aerosol products in our day-to-day life. But do you know that these products are a major contributor of air pollution? In fact, such household aerosol products now emit more harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than the vehicles, according to a new research report published in ScienceDaily. In the presence of sunlight, these compounds combine with a second pollutant, nitrogen oxides, to cause photochemical smog which is harmful to human health and damages crops and plants, said the authors.
According to the research team from the University of York and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, the world's population now uses more than 25 billion cans of disposable aerosols per year, and this is estimated to lead to the release of more than 1.3 million tonnes of VOC air pollution each year. They warned that the number could rise to 2.2 million tonnes by 2050.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are also released from cars and fuels, are now predominantly used in compressed aerosols. The report noted that though the VOCs currently being used in aerosols are less damaging than the ozone-depleting CFCs they replaced in the 1980's, the current number of global consumptions of aerosol products is quite alarming. At present VOCs are used in around 93 per cent of aerosol cans, the report stated.
As per the researchers, gasoline cars and fuel were the largest source of VOC pollution in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s. But in recent years, these emissions have reduced dramatically through controls such as catalytic converters on vehicles and fuel vapour recovery at filling stations, they said. Now, aerosol products used in the home contribute to more harmful VOC air pollution than all the vehicles in the UK, they added.
In high-income countries, on average 10 cans of aerosol are used per person per year with the largest contributor being personal care products, the researchers noted. With lower and middle-income economies growing and people in these countries buying and using more aerosol products, the global VOC amount emitted from aerosols every year is surging. Therefore, the researchers are appealing to the international policymakers to work on reducing the use of VOCs in compressed aerosols either by encouraging use of less damaging propellants like nitrogen or advocating the use of non-aerosol versions of products.
Professor Alastair Lewis from the Department of Chemistry and a Director of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science mentioned in the report almost all aerosol-based consumer products can be delivered in non-aerosol form. There are already non-aerosol alternatives that come in liquid or solid forms, such as roll-on deodorant, hair gel, solid furniture polish, bronzing lotion, and room fragrance. Professor Lewis recommends people to switch to non-VOC alternatives and help in reducing air pollution.
"Making just small changes in what we buy could have a major impact on both outdoor and indoor air quality and have relatively little impact on our lives. The widespread switching of aerosol propellant with non-VOC alternatives would lead to potentially meaningful reductions in surface ozone," Professor Lewis asserted.
However, despite the availability of non-aerosol alternatives, people continue use of aerosols due to past consumer habits, the authors said. They believe that that labeling of consumer products as high VOC emitting -- and clearly linking this to poor indoor and outdoor air quality -- may drive change away from aerosols to their alternatives.
