研究发现 香味产品也会污染空气
The chemicals found in items you use every day - like your shampoo, perfume and cleaning products - now have as much of an impact on air pollution as vehicle emissions, according to a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Researchers used 15 times more petroleum as fuel than as ingredients in consumer and industrial products, they said, yet the amount of chemical vapors released into the atmosphere through scented products is roughly the same as through fuel emissions. Those vapors are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They react with sunlight to form ozone pollution, and the researchers found they also react with various chemicals in the atmosphere to create fine particulates in the air. "As the transportation sector gets cleaner, these other sources of volatile organic compounds become more and more important," said a NOAA scientist. "A lot of stuff we use in our everyday lives can impact air pollution." For the study, which was published in the journal Science, researchers specifically studied air pollution over greater Los Angeles. The team couldn't reconcile measurements made over the area with estimates of transportation emissions. So they reassessed sources of air pollution by combing through recent chemical production statistics and evaluated indoor air quality measurements that were made by other groups. The team found that the VOC levels emitted by chemical products are actually two or three times more than earlier estimates, which had also overestimated emissions from vehicles. As an example, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 75 percent of VOC emissions come from vehicles and about 25 percent from chemical products. The new study says the sourcing is closer to 50-50. The lopsided air-quality impact is due to an inherent difference between scented chemical products and fuels. |