http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-soaps-paints-chemicals-toxic-pollutants-equal-car-emissions-a8212341.html
Chemicals in everyday consumer products including soaps and paints have been revealed as a major source of air pollution comparable with emissions from the transport sector.
Research suggests products like soap and paints emit significant quantities of petroleum-based chemicals, rivalling cars and other vehicles as the top source of urban air pollution.
Air pollution has been ranked as the fifth highest health risk in the world and is estimated to kill 40,000 people in the UK every year.
Governments around the world are under increasing pressure to clean up their air and the UK has faced legal threats both at home and from the EU over its dangerous levels of pollutants, particularly nitrogen dioxide.
The study comes on the day the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released its latest emissions figures, which showed an overall decline in air pollution. This has been attributed largely to tighter vehicle regulations.
However, the new research suggests a need to diversify regulatory efforts beyond road traffic in order to make a dent in some of the toxic chemicals infiltrating urban environments.
“As transportation gets cleaner, those other sources become more and more important,” said Dr Brian McDonald, a researcher in the Chemical Sciences Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which led the study. The NOAA is a scientific agency within the US government that focuses on the oceans and atmosphere.
“The stuff we use in our everyday lives can impact air pollution.”
