Five Carcinogenic Dead Angles in Your Home
[Health Guide] You may have already realized that our living environment is no longer what it used to be. Health "killers" are everywhere. To defend the last stronghold - our home, we must take strict measures: vegetables bought back should be soaked thoroughly, clothes worn outside should be changed immediately when returning home, and all floors and furniture in the house should be environmentally friendly green products. However, you may not yet realize that while you are building a defensive "fortress" with great enthusiasm, you might also be carelessly bringing "poisons" back home.
1. Check the Bedroom
Take a look at your bedroom. There must be quite a few cosmetics on your dressing table, but the formaldehyde and resin in cosmetics can harm your eyes; talcum powder and rouge contain talc, which is a carcinogen. In your wardrobe, there might be no shortage of elastic body suits, nylon pants, and nylon socks. Nylon polyester synthetic fiber fabrics release trace amounts of "plastic monomers" when warmed by the human body. The softeners, aerosols, and antistatic agents added during processing pose potential hazards to the human body.
Do you often go to the dry cleaner? It's indeed troublesome but clean, and it can protect your clothes. However, clothing dry cleaning agents and stain removers contain ethylene oxide, which can harm the liver and bone marrow's hematopoietic function.
2. Check the Study
There are also plenty of "poisons" in the study. Correction fluid, ink remover, and printer correction fluid are very convenient to use, but these chemical agents generally contain toxic chemicals such as benzene and mercury. They can stimulate excessive secretion of adrenaline and increase the heart's sensitivity to adrenaline, causing an accelerated and irregular heartbeat. Severe cases can lead to acute heart disease, or even death.
3. Check the Kitchen
The kitchen certainly has various cleaning supplies. Have you noticed that your hands have become rough? This is because the surfactants, builders, and other chemical additives contained in cleaning products destroy the oily protective layer on the skin, causing corrosion and damage. The chemical components in detergents also cause varying degrees of damage to hair and other parts of the body. Residual detergent on bowls and plates poses a threat to the health of your family members.
In addition, you might have the habit of mixing different cleaning agents together to enhance the cleaning effect. However, some household cleaning agents are acidic, while others are alkaline. Mixing them may cause chemical reactions. For example, using toilet cleaner to remove stains may produce ammonia gas or ammonia water. When ammonia water mixes with bleach-containing cleaning agents, toxic chloramine gas is easily produced. Excessive inhalation can lead to severe inflammation and pulmonary edema.
Moreover, toxic pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), inhalable particulate matter, halogenated hydrocarbons, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the kitchen from gas combustion, cooking fumes, and inhalable particles are also carcinogenic factors.
4. Check the Bathroom
You might have one or two bottles of insecticide or air freshener in the bathroom. If you feel depressed, have headaches, dizziness, or flu-like symptoms after using insecticides, consider the possibility of insecticide poisoning. If you experience chest tightness, fatigue, eye and nose irritation, remove that fragrant air freshener and see if it gets better.
5. Check Indoor Toxic Sources
(1) Pollution from Buildings Themselves
Pollution from buildings themselves is the first source of indoor "toxic gases." Two main types of concrete admixtures are used in construction: one is adding concrete antifreeze agent to the concrete walls during winter construction, and the other is using high-alkali concrete expansive agent and early-strength agent to improve the curing speed of concrete. The use of concrete admixtures helps to improve the strength of concrete and construction speed. However, these admixtures contain large amounts of ammonia-based substances, which will be reduced into ammonia gas and slowly released from the walls as environmental factors like temperature and humidity change. Moreover, if the radioactive materials in stones and bricks used in construction exceed standards, they can cause harmful radioactive pollution to humans.
(2) Pollution from Decorative and Renovation Materials
During indoor decoration and furniture making processes, various plywood, veneer panels, sawdust boards, reinforced, and composite floors are widely used. The adhesives they use contain harmful substances - free formaldehyde, which will gradually release during renovation and furniture usage. According to data, national health, construction, and environmental protection departments once conducted a random inspection test on indoor decorative and renovation materials, finding that 68% of materials had toxic gas pollution. These materials entering homes can cause over 30 kinds of diseases in respiratory, digestive, nervous, and other systems.
(3) Pollution from Indoor Furniture
Currently, furniture materials in the market vary greatly in quality. Some furniture and their manufacturing materials contain multiple pollutants such as formaldehyde and benzene. Relevant materials from the China Indoor Decoration Association's Indoor Environment Testing Center indicate that indoor air pollution caused by furniture has become the third major pollution source after building and renovation pollution. Experts believe that indoor decorative materials like plywood, blockboard, medium-density fiberboard, and particleboard have a significant impact on indoor air pollution.
(4) Pollution from Daily Life
People unconsciously "produce" a large amount of toxic gases in daily life. For example, burning gas, cooking oil fumes, and shower heating in kitchens and bathrooms produce large amounts of CO2, NO2, SO2, inhalable particulates, halogenated hydrocarbons, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Hair styling products like mousse and gel, air fresheners, cleaning agents, and insecticides sometimes also generate toxic and harmful chemical gases.
In modern society and culture, refusing all "poisons" is almost impossible. However, you can completely take measures to control them to the minimum extent: clothes, especially underwear, are best made of pure cotton. Wear rubber gloves when using detergents and rinse several times more. Do not use strongly scented household chemical preparations in closed environments or in rooms for the elderly and children. When the outdoor air is good, remember to open windows for ventilation.
In modern home cleaning concepts, so-called "cleanliness" is not just about being dust-free. It also includes air cleanliness, simple soft decoration ideas, and safety without any contamination threats.
How Does Kitchen Smoke Cause Cancer?
When talking about kitchen smoke, we inevitably involve range hoods. The advent of range hoods once changed the history of smoke-filled kitchens. With market development, Chinese, European, side suction... the variety of range hoods on the market has become increasingly rich, but let's reflect on the oil absorption effect of range hoods.
With range hoods, kitchens are no longer as smoke-filled as before. But what is the reality behind this appearance? The filters on range hoods are indeed full of grease, and the oil collection trays under the filters accumulate residual oil drawn from the range hoods. But do you have such experiences: there is still a layer of oil and gas on the surface of the range hood, the thickness of which depends on the length of the cleaning cycle. Therefore, another product appeared on the market: detergent or spray agent for cleaning kitchen and range hood oil stains; tools placed around the range hood also become oily after a few days without cleaning; when cooking spicy or Sichuan peppercorn-like stimulating seasonings, even with the maximum oil absorption function of the range hood turned on, the pungent smoke still makes you cough uncontrollably and irritates the throat...
Clearly, what do these phenomena indicate? There is still a lot of smoke in the kitchen, even with traditional range hoods turned on.
Therefore, it is unsurprising that the China Health Education Association has again issued a warning about the threat of smoke to human health.
Smoke Hazards
A British research report recently claimed that cooking for an hour on a stove with poor ventilation and low combustion efficiency is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes every day.
A five-year lung cancer epidemiological survey by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine also found similar problems. The survey discovered that more than 60% of non-smoking female lung cancer patients had long-term exposure to kitchen smoke, among which 32% of women liked to cook food at high temperatures with oil frying. Researchers therefore believed that women who cook in the kitchen for a long time are 2-3 times more likely to develop lung cancer.
Another case-control study on female lung cancer by Shanghai Second Medical University found that apart from smoking, the induction factors of female lung cancer were closely related to air pollution in small kitchen environments. 51% of squamous cell lung cancers and 61% of adenocarcinomas occurred due to family kitchen smoke pollution.
Worrisomely, because the huge harm of smoke has certain concealment, many people often turn a blind eye to it, eventually leading to cancerous changes.
Why does smoke cause cancer? Experts pointed out that this is related to the mutation of edible oil at high temperatures. For example, rapeseed oil itself contains more linolenic acid, linoleic acid, and other unsaturated fatty acids. When the oil temperature rises to 60°C, oxidation begins. At 130°C, the oxidation products start to decompose, forming multiple compounds, some of which are carcinogens. When cooking oil reaches 150°C, glycerol generates acrolein, a major component of smoke, which has a strong spicy taste and strongly stimulates the nasal, eye, and throat mucosa. When cooking oil heats up to above 200°C, the generated smoke condensate, such as nitrogen oxides, has strong toxicity. When cooking oil burns to 350°C "spitting fire," this is the highest risk of cancer.
Meanwhile, Chinese culinary culture emphasizes stir-frying, deep-frying, and frying. Stir-frying or frying can cause the content of "benzo(a)pyrene" in the air to increase. Benzo(a)pyrene is internationally recognized as a strong carcinogen.
Traditional Range Hoods Fail
The above research results have shocked those who frequently cook, and similarly embarrassed traditional range hoods. How effective are those range hoods? Is it merely surface smoke removal? While alleviating the apparent smoky haze, are health threats hidden deeper where they cannot be seen?
Experts particularly remind housewives not to overly trust the effects of traditional exhaust fans. In fact, the efficiency range of most current exhaust fans is only effective within 45cm below the exhaust fan.
So, how can we achieve both health and deliciousness?
Experts suggest tackling the problem from three aspects to reduce the harm of kitchen smoke. First, the habit of "high heat quick stir-fry" should be changed because high temperatures easily cause cancer. Second, steaming, boiling, stewing should be advocated in diet, trying to minimize frying, stir-frying, or eating fried foods to reduce smoke and carcinogens.
Most importantly, technological innovation should be applied to reform the working methods of traditional range hoods to ensure fresh air in the kitchen.
Link: http://club.fjdh.com/8380/viewspace-147733.html