How do we clean secret frac, drilling, servicing chemicals from our homes? New study says after wildfires we must clean our homes, contents, clothes and replace HEPA filters.
Harmful chemicals from wildfire smoke can linger for a month or more inside a home or business on items such as clothing or cups, say experts.
The good news is that washing everything with everyday household cleaners can remove the chemicals, according to a recent study from Portland State University.
The researchers studied highly toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from wildfire smoke in the home over four months on glass, cotton and in air filters.Frac, cementing, servicing, drilling chemicals can contaminate homes and businesses with PAHs too and more toxic chemicals.
What they found was it took 37 days for the chemicals to decrease by 74 per cent for air filters, 81 per cent for cotton and 88 per cent for glass, according to a news release from the university Tuesday.
However, when the items were washed, there was a significant decrease in the amount of chemicals, the researchers said.
For example, laundering cotton clothes just one time reduced PAHs by 80 per cent while using a commercial glass cleaner on materials like windows and cups reduced PAHs between 60 per cent and 70 per cent, according to the university.At Rosebud, Alberta, because of oil patch chemicals spewing from Encana/Ovintiv (now Lynx) endless compressors, and wildfires getting worse annaully, and starting earlier and ending later, I must clean my window screens monthly (they are on the outside of my windows and even though I have rolltop shutters that I keep closed during wildfires, the screens still get nearly completely plugged with thick grey sludge and pollutants, preventing air from moving through the screens. It’s ghastly to see the wash water after I clean even just one screen thickly accumulated with smoke and frac chemicals. Oil and gas industry chemicals adhere to particulate pollution such as in wildfire smoke, creating a much worse hazard for health and entry of toxic contaminants inside homes in frac fields, such as throughout NEBC, most of Alberta, much of SK and MB, etc. North America’s industry controlled main media, like CBC and the Calgary Herald rarely report on how toxic it is to live with frac’d air in our homes, yards and communities, and how the chemicals seep into the construction materials, such as drywall, used to build our homes and fabrics in our furnishings/clothing/bedding.
Think of the cumulative toxic wildfire smoke and frac/drilling chemical harms to families living in frac fields like NEBC in photo above
Elliott Gall, an associate professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at PSU, said these chemicals from wildfire smoke are associated with a wide variety of long-term adverse health consequences, such as cancer, potential complications in pregnancy and lung disease.Frac and drilling chemicals, including in the pollutants spewed freely in venting and flaring and via compressors, frac jobs, etc, are much more toxic to health (with most kept secret!), as are the cumulative harms of living drilled and frac’d, during wildfires, never mind also often being radioactive.
In a statement, Gall said most people are thinking about cleaning their air filters after a wildfire but with these chemicals sticking onto surfaces, there are different routes of exposure people should be aware of, like drinking out of tainted glasses.
Gall’s study, which was published in Environmental Science and Technology, notes that while glass and cotton can be washed to reduce the PAHs, air filters can’t be cleaned and need to be replaced after an extreme smoke event.Since frac’ing invaded my community in 2001, I have 3 large HEPA filters running, 24/7. One cost nearly $1,000.00. They are expensive to buy with filter the most expensive part; living frac’d requires them to be replaced often. No one but me, pays for this big expense. Living frac’d is expensive, and health harming. Add in my costs being forced to haul alternate water after Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac’d my community’s drinking water aquifers, enabled and covered up by AER and the Alberta gov’t.
“Even if there’s potentially some more life in them, over time PAHs can partition off the filter and be emitted back into your space,” Gall said in the statement.During wildfires in oil and gas jurisdictions like Alberta and BC, oil and gas industry and secret frac/drilling/servicing/waste (usually radioactive) chemicals, etc, sometimes go up in flames with forests and grasslands (notably in areas where companies get rid of their toxic waste by dumping it on pastures, roads, leases, and croplands, as in the photo below, meaning the toxic chemicals we breath during wildfires is much more harmful to health.
Encana/Ovintiv’s waste dumped on cropland near Rosebud Alberta
Researchers say the study brings up more questions that need to be answered, for example how long do the chemicals linger on drywall? Gall added that future research will look at the most effective ways to clean your home or business after a wildfire.
Last summer in B.C., wildfire smoke was linked to the death of a boy in 100 Mile House in what officials called the province’s worst wildfire season.
Wildfires burned 24,900 square kilometres of land last year, nearly double the 2018 record of 13,600 sq. km. High temperatures, extreme drought and the record-breaking Donnie Creek fire all contributed to the massive amount of land scorched. A smoky haze blanketed much of the province all summer.
Experts urged residents to take every precaution against the wildfire smoke, which they said can lead to serious health problems.
Dr. Emily Brigham, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of B.C., told Postmedia that even healthy people can get sick, but there’s significant concern for asthma patients.
Given that heat and wildfire smoke linked to climate change are more common now, she said it’s a good idea for communities to think about how they can protect their most vulnerable citizens, such as ensuring there are safe spaces with HEPA air filters to go to.Why do our authorities and academia/media not recommend N95 masks for added protection during wildfire smoke? They do not filter out the many toxic gases in the smoke, notably not in oil and gas areas, but they do filter out much particulate pollution. When keeping all my windows and doors closed during fires does not keep the smoke out, and the HEPA filters can’t keep up, I wear N95s inside my home and never walk outside on my land or work in my gardens without one on.
This latest research from Portland shows that after an extreme wildfire event, cleaning surfaces, dishes and clothing could also help lower the risk of serious illness.So residents and workers in frac fields need to clean everything in their homes and businesses every day? How?
Wildfire smoke contains PAHs that, after infiltrating indoors, accumulate on indoor materials through particle deposition and partitioning from air. We report the magnitude and persistence of select surface associated PAHs on three common indoor materials: glass, cotton, and mechanical air filter media. Materials were loaded with PAHs through both spiking with standards and exposure to a wildfire smoke proxy. Loaded materials were aged indoors over ∼4 months to determine PAH persistence. For materials spiked with standards, total PAH decay rates were 0.010 ± 0.002, 0.025 ± 0.005, and 0.051 ± 0.009 day–1, for mechanical air filter media, glass, and cotton, respectively. PAH decay on smoke-exposed samples is consistent with that predicated by decay constants from spiked materials. Decay curves of smoke loaded samples show that PAH surface concentrations are elevated above background for ∼40 days after the smoke clears. Cleaning processes efficiently remove PAHs, with reductions of 71% and 62% after cleaning smoke-exposed glass with ethanol and a commercial cleaner, respectively. Laundering smoke-exposed cotton in a washing machine and heated drying removed 48% of PAHs. An exposure assessment indicates that both inhalation and dermal PAH exposure pathways may be relevant following wildfire smoke events.
Refer also to:
2002:What are your kids breathing in school? in Calgary Herald, Nov 2002
Steph W@Stepnstop:
So it turns out that experts have been worried about air quality in schools since at least 2002, when Dr. Michael Shannon, a top pediatric toxicologist and expert on the effects of environmental hazards in children, presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“…what is the quality of the air that our children inhale inside schools? According to Dr Michael Shannon, director of the pediatric environmental health centre at Children’s Hospital, Boston, Mass, we have a problem on our hands and it is predicted to get worse.” (Nov 2002)
Substandard environmental conditions in schools, such as insufficient cleaning or inadequate ventilation, can cause serious health problems for children. Evidence that indoor air quality (IAQ) DIRECTLY IMPACTS HEALTH & student academic performance continues to mount.
Frac, cementing, servicing, drilling chemicals can contaminate homes and businesses with PAHs too and more toxic chemicals.
