来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2022年2月25日
Scented surface cleaning products can expose you to a similar amount of pollutant particles as a busy urban road used by 28,000 vehicles a day. The findings suggest that professional cleaners may be especially at risk of harm caused by indoor pollutants.
有香味的表面清洁产品使你接触到的污染物颗粒水平相当于你站在每天有28000辆汽车通过的城市路边。研究结果表明，职业清洁工尤其容易受到室内污染物的危害。
Surface cleaning products often contain fragrant chemicals called monoterpenes that smell like pine. Monoterpenes easily evaporate into the air where they react with unstable molecules such as ozone to produce pollutant particles called secondary organic aerosols (SOAs).
表面清洁产品通常含有一种名为单萜烯的芳香化学物质，闻起来像松树。单萜烯很容易蒸发到空气中，与臭氧等不稳定分子发生反应，产生被称为二次有机气溶胶（SOA）的污染颗粒。
SOAs – which are also generated by vehicle fumes – can irritate your airways. “The smaller the particles are, the deeper they go into the lung,” says Colleen Rosales at Indiana University. “Smaller particles cause serious respiratory problems, such as inflammation. They can also introduce chemicals into the bloodstream.”
SOA——汽车尾气也会产生——会刺激你的呼吸道。印第安纳大学的科琳·罗萨莱斯说：“颗粒越小，进入肺部的深度就越深。较小的颗粒会导致严重的呼吸问题，如炎症。它们还能将化学物质引入血液。”
Rosales and her colleagues cleaned the floor of an office room for 15 minutes using a mop soaked in a scented commercial cleaning product and repeated this a few hours later. The team used particle counters to track the levels of small SOAs – with a diameter of 10 nanometres or less – in the air during and after cleaning.
罗萨莱斯和她的同事用蘸有香味的商用清洁产品的拖把清洁了一间办公室的地板15分钟，几小时后又重复了一遍。该团队使用粒子计数器跟踪清洁期间和之后空气中直径小于等于10纳米的小SOA的含量。
By modelling how particles enter the respiratory system, they calculated that being in a room during 1.5 hours of mopping would expose the lungs to similar pollutant particle levels as spending 1.5 to 6 hours by a busy road. This comparison was based on previously published pollution data from a road used by thousands of vehicles a day and lined by multistorey buildings.
通过对颗粒物如何进入呼吸系统建模，他们计算出，在房间里拖地1.5小时，将使肺部暴露的污染物颗粒水平与待在繁忙的道路上1.5到6小时相当。这一对比是基于此前公布的一道路污染数据，这条道路每天行驶数千辆汽车，两旁是多层建筑。
More research is needed to establish the health effects of these indoor pollutants, the team says. “We are currently lacking detailed information on how the toxicity of indoor particles compares to those generated through vehicles outdoors,” says Nicola Carslaw at the University of York in the UK. If they are harmful, we may want to think about developing guidelines to lower the health risks for professional cleaners, she adds.
该团队表示，需要更多的研究来确定这些室内污染物对健康的影响。“我们目前缺乏关于室内颗粒物与室外车辆产生的颗粒物的毒性比较的详细信息，”英国约克大学的尼古拉·卡斯劳说。她补充道，如果室内颗粒物是有害的，我们可能要考虑制定指导方针，以降低专业清洁工的健康风险。
Rosales suggests that SOA levels indoors can be reduced by using fans containing filters that capture ozone and the pollutants. People can also avoid products that contain monoterpenes.
罗萨莱斯建议，室内的SOA水平可以通过使用带有过滤器的风扇来降低，过滤器可以捕获臭氧和污染物。人们也可以避免使用含有单萜烯的产品。