Friday, October 3, 2008

Car Fumes (Is Your Garage Attached to Your Home?)


Donna Barnett of Chasing Clean Air, called Steve Ferguson, a senior engineer at the Harvard School of Public Health. She sought his advice about buying a device that could measure the air pollution in her home. That got them to talking about the kinds of substances in home air that she should worry about.

According to Barnett, Feguson said he “is most concerned with VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in car fumes. He noted his concern for people with garages attached to their house--what else are they bringing in the house when arriving?

He made an interesting comment: It'd be interesting to study the health of truck drivers, since they breathe the most particulate matter. Poofs of diesel smoke from their smokestack frequently dump along the truck's surface, and behind the truck where the airflow is rough and turbulent.

Trucks frequently follow one another in truck lanes so they'd breathe fine particulate matter the most.

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