"It's the same stuff that comes out of a tailpipe or a smokestack," said Jerry Martin, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. "We're talking hundreds of different kinds of products, stuff everyone uses. It's almost one secret area of emissions that you don't hear about and no one talks about."

Chemicals in Home a Big Smog Source

 GARY POLAKOVIC / LA Times 9mar03 http://www.mindfully.org/Air/2003/Home-Chemicals-Smog9mar03.htm

[E]ven before the chemicals escape into

the environment, they contribute to indoor

air pollution, which typically is more

dangerous than smog because the

chemicals concentrate nearer to people.

Cleansers, cosmetics and other products pump 100 tons of pollutants daily into the Southland's air, ranking second to tailpipe emissions, studies show.

Ordinary household products such as cleansers, cosmetics and paints are now the Los Angeles region's second-leading source of air pollution, after auto tailpipe emissions, air quality officials say.

 

Regulators have long known that smog-forming chemicals escape with every squirt of antiperspirant, each bubble of detergent and every spritz of aerosol hair spray. And they have been controlling some products' emissions for years, with mixed success. But new research shows that products common in kitchens, bathrooms and garages contribute more to Southern California's smog problem than previously thought.

"It's the same stuff that comes out of a tailpipe or a smokestack," said Jerry Martin, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. "We're talking hundreds of different kinds of products, stuff everyone uses. It's almost one secret area of emissions that you don't hear about and no one talks about."

The offending items include detergents, cleaning compounds, glues, polishes, floor finishes, cosmetics, perfume, antiperspirants, rubbing alcohol, room fresheners, car wax, paint and lawn care products.

On a typical day, about 108 tons of smog-forming fumes are emitted from such products used in houses and small businesses in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The South Coast Air Quality Management District released those estimates last month as part of a new comprehensive plan to cut smog and haze in the region. ...

COMMON CHEMICALS

Smog-fighters focus on glue, hair spray ...

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Spencer Hunt

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

http://www.dispatch.com/print_template.php?story=dispatch/2007/01/28/20070128-A1-02.html

Cars and power plants are the prime culprits behind Ohio's smog problems.

But the state's latest effort to clear the unhealthful haze from summer skies focuses on such products as hair sprays, deodorants, furniture polish, glass cleaners and even urinal cakes.

Estimates indicate that these products release about 100 tons of smog-forming chemicals into Ohio's air every day.

Throw in cars and mowers, gas stations, dry cleaners and paint, and the amount grows by more than tenfold, says the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, which offers technical assistance on air-pollution issues to officials in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Smog can damage lungs, spurring asthma attacks and worsening lung diseases.

Faced with a federal mandate to reduce smog, environmental agencies in Ohio and several other states are thinking about ordering manufacturers to cut back on these chemicals.

"Consumer products are a significant contributor to smog," said Christopher Recchia, director of the Ozone Transport Commission, which helped draft proposed product limits for 12 eastern and northeastern states and its home base of Washington, D.C.

A manufacturers group, the Consumer Specialty Products Association, said that although it won't object to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's plan, the proposed rules won't significantly clean the air.

"You're not going to see much difference," said D. Douglas Fratz, the association's vice president of scientific and technical affairs. "We are actually a very tiny percent of (smog) generation."

Mike Koerber, director of the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, said the new limits would reduce product pollutants to about 81 tons per day.

The chemicals, called "volatile organic compounds," along with nitrogen oxides released by cars, power plants and factories, form smog when they are cooked in the air on hot, stagnant days.

Nitrogen oxide released by factories and power plants in Ohio has dropped from a daily average of 1,015 tons in 2002 to 697 tons in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.

 

But in 2004, the U.S. EPA declared that 33 Ohio counties failed a new health standard for smog and gave Ohio until June 2009 to pass.

The Ohio EPA has since asked the U.S. EPA to take 20 counties, including Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Knox, Licking and Madison, off the list.

Officials said new cars that pollute less and the reduction in powerplant emissions have helped reduce smog in central Ohio and elsewhere.

And they say that a reduction in chemicals in consumer products would help keep Columbus under the smog limit and reduce unhealthful levels in Cincinnati and Cleveland.

Washington, D.C., and states including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia have proposed the same product limits, which California already enforces.

"We will ultimately be the first (state) to go ahead and implement this, other than California," said Bill Spires, a manager in the Ohio EPA's air-pollution control division.

Ohio's proposed rules, available for public comment through Monday, would make manufacturers reduce or eliminate smog-forming chemicals by January 2008.

Many of the proposed cutbacks are aimed at aerosol products - everything from glues and engine degreasers to insecticides and hair sprays.

Koerber said the cuts would be more effective when combined with Ohio's other plans to require cleaner paints and gasoline.

"You need to package all of these reductions together," he said.

Fratz said many products sold in Ohio already meet California's standards.

"To a large degree, they are going to get the benefits of these reductions whether they adopt it or not," he said.

Ohio EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said the proposed rules would cover products sold here but not in California.

Until then, "The rest of the U.S. isn't necessarily getting the cleanest products," Griesmer said.

shunt@... 

*       Smog-makers

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/01/28/20070128-A4-06.html

Air fresheners (aerosol)

Carburetor and choke cleaners

Engine degreasers

Fabric protectants

Furniture polishes

Hair sprays

Hair mousses

Insecticides (crawling bugs)

Insecticides (flying bugs)

Nail-polish removers

Antiperspirants (aerosol)

Deodorants (aerosol)

Sources: Federal Register, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency