The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked newfound interest in indoor air quality. People are now thinking about how virus particles can spread indoors, but the hazards of indoor environments go beyond pandemic-causing pathogens. Air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health threat, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but a majority of people likely don’t think of their own bodies as part of the problem, especially within their own homes.
Now, an interdisciplinary collaboration between atmospheric chemists and engineers in Germany, Denmark, France, and the US has shown that oil from human skin reacts with ozone to generate potent, free radicals that can further react with most organic compounds present in the indoor environment to in turn produce dangerous pollutants.
This reactive pathway, detailed in a study published yesterday (September 1) in Science, helps explain how the human body directly influences the chemistry of indoor environments. It may also aid ...
