Gas Appliance Pollutants in the Home: The Widely Unknown but Very Serious Dangers of Gas Appliances
Common appliances in your home-appliances like your gas oven, stove, water heater or clothes dryer-can, in certain circumstances "produce combustion pollutants that can damage your health, or even kill you," says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
These pollutants are produced when the fuel in these appliances (natural gas, kerosene, wood or coal) is burned. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ultrafine particles, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and sulfur dioxide are just some of the pollutants that can be produced and released into your home's air.
Combustion pollutants including ultrafine particles are known to cause numerous health problems like inflammation, oxidative stress, headaches, dizziness, sleepiness, watery eyes, breathing difficulties or even death. These effects can occur immediately or after years of long-term exposure.
Combustion pollutants are so problematic because the air inside our homes is subject to a variety of toxins, not only from our gas appliances but also from building materials, tobacco smoke and activities like cleaning and cooking. When they're all combined they make our indoor air significantly more polluted than the outdoor air, even in big cities, according to the EPA.
People spend the majority of their time indoors and therefore the majority of their time breathing indoor air, so if that air is contaminated health problems will almost indefinitely result.
Are my Gas Appliances a Risk to my Health?
It appears that even natural gas appliances that are vented to the outdoors (such as clothes dryers) may release high levels of ultrafine particles indoors.
According to an 18-month study of the ultrafine particle emissions in a townhouse (conducted by Lance Wallace, a retired EPA expert on air quality monitoring) an outdoor-vented clothes dryer was responsible for producing an "order of magnitude increase in the ultrafine [particle] concentrations [in the home] compared to times" when the dryer or other appliances were not in use.
According to the EPA, the amount of pollutants produced by a particular appliance depend on how well the appliance is installed and maintained, how well it's vented and what type of fuel it uses. However, because the health effects from these pollutants can also occur from a number of other sources, it can be difficult to determine if your gas appliances are to blame.
Since getting rid of all gas appliances isn't an option for most of us, one of the safest and most effective ways to keep the air inside your home free of pollutants is to invest in a high-quality air treatment system, like the top-recommended Pionair Air Treatment System.
Pionair is superior to other air purifiers because it utilizes "photocatalysis" technology to purify your indoor air, a process that replicates nature's own method of purifying the air outside. Sadly, since our indoor air gets the brunt of so many pollutants, an air treatment system like Pionair is now a necessity in all homes.
Tips to Keep Your Gas Appliances as Safe as Possible
The EPA does offer some tips to reduce your exposure to combustion pollutants, which you can apply to your own home today.
* Make sure your home has good ventilation, and open windows, etc. when you can.
* Only choose vented appliances, if possible.
* When buying combustion appliances, look for products that have met current safety standards (they'll contain labels from organizations like Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the American Gas Association (AGA) Laboratories).
* Consider buying gas appliances that have electronic ignitions rather than pilot lights. They're more energy efficient, and they don't give off the constant low-level pollutants that pilot lights do.
* Make sure your appliances are the proper size. Heaters that are too big may produce more pollutants than necessary.
-----------------
Sources
U.S. EPA: Indoor Air Quality
Ultrafine Particles From a Vented Gas Clothes Dryer (PDF)
From the FREE SixWise.com e-newsletter, the Web's #1 most read newsletter with original articles in all 6 areas of life leading to complete wellness.
Related Articles:
Home Appliances: Cutting Edge Cooktops
Are you a gourmet cook that demands the finest in kitchen appliances, or a gadget junkie that has to have the latest thing, no matter what it is? Cooktops are one type of kitchen appliance that is seeing a lot of innovation recently. Read on to find out the latest and greatest.
Amana Appliances | Buying A Refrigerator.
Almost all the homes today have a refrigerator to keep their day to day food products vegetables, milk products, meat products, fruits and many more in them. For over years people have been using refrigerators to keep foods chilled and frozen. Today?s refrigerators are more efficient and their trends attract the people and their growing demands. Today all want to own a attractive looking refrigerator which can give them more convenience and performance than their old refrigerators ever gave. People are also opting to buy energy efficient refrigerators that will help them to reduce their electricity bills.
Kitchen Appliances | Affordable Kitchen Appliances - Make Life Easy
Now days to have a generous lifestyle our kitchen appliances need to have latest gadgets attached to it. As these kitchen appliances help us to lead a comfortable life, using them makes our workload less and the food is prepared very quickly. After a tiring days work, the user hardly gets time to cook and spend time with the family. With the changes in technology, home appliances help us to lead a lavish lifestyle and help us to save time which later can be spent with our family and friends. Before purchasing an appliance, always keep in mind to take that product which has most favorable facilities attached to it. Let us take the latest refrigerator or a microwave oven; this provides us the freedom to cook and store the food items without a...
Buying Home Appliances The Smart Way
When you add up all the money that you can spend on home appliances and fixtures it becomes obvious that you need to spend wisely and carefully to keep costs under control. These items tend to be some of the larger ticket purchases around the home and lots of money can be wasted if buying isn't done properly.
Maytag Appliances | Maytag, A Good Coffee Maker
Almost many people now days prefer to have coffee than to have tea. As having a sip in the coffee shops are playing more with our pockets so it is always better to go in for a coffee maker. Gone are the days when our ancestors used to make coffee in the sauce pans with water boiling in separate pans and the coffee grains boiling in another pan and then mixing them in one pan and sieving it. What a long procedure? Hats off to our ancestors. They had so much patience. Now neither people have patience nor do they have enough time to afford to make a cup of coffee with such a long procedure. Today there are wide ranges of coffee makers in the market. We can buy according to our convenience and our budget. Once you get the coffee maker in your h...
Refurbished Home Appliances
Home appliances are essential for every home and are a boon to the existing busy schedule. Space consuming home appliances are beneficial as they save electricity and are an obligatory to every modern family.
Kitchen Appliances | Small Appliances Make Our Life Simpler
Many people think of leading a comfortable and simple life, using home appliances in the home or at their work place can make our life stress free and reduce the workload to a great extent. With the help of modern technology, the latest home appliances are attached with features which help us in leading a simpler life. These small home appliances which are placed on the countertop of the kitchen help to decorate the home in a very creative fashion. These Small kitchen appliances can be found in different designer colors and with ultra modern attachments. Now making coffee for friends is very simple and quick, earlier it was a difficult job for the busy Homeowners. With this advanced coffee maker things have changed, all the coffee lovers mu...
Kitchen Design Firm Goes Green with Eco-Friendly Product Options for Creating Your Dream Green Kitchen
Signature kitchen & bath design's top vendors join the green trend.
Home Appliances | Home Appliances Are Entertaining
Cooking breakfast can be very entertaining if certain handy home appliances are got into use. Handy kitchen appliances are those appliances which can be taken to anywhere; these appliances help the user to enjoy while he is preparing food items. You can get these appliances at a very reasonable rate and can be got by any person at home. Home appliances are those appliances which help the user in decreasing his workload and save time which later can be used with family and friends. The whole days work makes the person very tired, he hardly gets time to cook food; these appliances help them to make meals in no time. Suddenly guest have dropped in your home, there is no need to take tension as these appliances will help you to entertain your g...
Home Appliances: Ovens
With the different types of cooking methods and installation styles available in ovens today, people looking to purchase a new oven may be easily confused by all the options. Here?s some oven-speak to make your shopping trip a bit easier.
Top Tips When Buying Home Appliances
Everyone loves a great deal ? everyone loves to come home from shopping and brag about something that they bought that they got on sale at half price. There are items that you can buy on sale without worrying about. Things like food, (as long as you check the expiry date!) books, shoes, some furniture, etc. There are other items, however, that you should be careful and wary to buy on sale. These items include furniture, electronics and appliances.
Santana Row's RELAX Showroom Highlights the Latest in Kitchen Design
Signature Kitchen & Bath Design partners with Critchfield Construction to create the ultimate dream kitchen.
Kitchen Remodeling: Should You Buy New Appliances?
The decision to remodel the kitchen is a decision thousands of home owners make each year. Change is one of the more common reasons that homeowners use for remodeling.
Viking Appliances | Buying Appliances From Toronto Appliance
In modern days air conditioners have become a necessity in every household. Though the use of air conditioners varies enormously and depends on both climate and weather. But, if we live in an energy efficient house, we are less likely to need or want an air conditioner. When we go the market to buy an air conditioner we should find the details of the price and the features. We should search out for the size, color and the task done by them and then choose the most efficient model that will perform the task. There are varieties of air conditioners floating in the market. The two main types of air conditioners for household use are window-wall systems and split systems. There are indicators given for the air conditioners which differentiate t...
Specific Small Appliances Which Are Taking Hold Of The Consumer Market
When one enters their local retail housewares store, they are inundated with a wide array of small appliances. From wall to wall and shelf to shelf, new tools and gadgets are placed as far as the eye can see. When all is said and done, there are certain small appliances which continue to be top sellers on the general consumer market and show exactly the train of thought which housewares purchasers possess when shopping for items to complete their home.