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The Hidden Air Pollution in our homes

4/12/2019

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The book Chemistry on a Budget contains inexpensive chemistry labs that are useful with easy to obtain materials.
 
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout. 
 
A 5-Star Customer Review of Chemistry on a Budget at amazon.com states:

“[S]traight forward, to the point, using household chemicals… this is the lab book for you. 
I teach high school chemistry and this is exactly what I was looking for. Labs included simple household chemicals that could be easily found. Nice format, easy to follow along procedures, and touches on every topic of our chemistry curriculum.”
 
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you -- Order Now.  It’s a great resource!
 
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
 
*Some of you have already purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
 
Here is an article titled “The Hidden Air Pollution in Our Homes”. 
 
“These days, a ‘very unhealthy’ designation for outdoor air is rare. After the passage of the Clean Air Act, in 1963, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1970, the chemical composition of outdoor air became federally regulated, with penalties for polluters. Since the seventies, emissions of many harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, have fallen by half, and particulate counts by eighty per cent. But this victory may be less significant than we assume, because, in America, we spend, on average, ninety per cent of our lives indoors. (By way of comparison, this means that humans spend more time inside buildings than sperm whales spend fully submerged in the ocean.) The statistic, from an E.P.A.-funded study conducted in 2001, might seem implausible, but it probably understates the case. More recent data, from the U.K., show that, on average, Britons are outside for just five per cent of the day—an hour and twelve minutes.
Unlike outdoor air, the air inside our homes is largely unregulated and has been all but ignored by researchers. “
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-hidden-air-pollution-in-our-homes
 
This article is several pages and may be appropriate for a Homework assignment our Extra Credit assignment.
 
Also, examining the scientific processes used may be a helpful reminder to your students.
 
Terms (22) that are mentioned in the article reading include:
 
acetaldehyde
 
acetone
 
asbestos
 
carbon dioxide
 
Clean Air Act, in 1963
 
condensation-nucleus counter
 
diesel engines
 
differential-mobility analyzer
 
Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index
 
formaldehyde
 
House Observations of Microbial and Environmental    
  Chemistry (HOMECHEM)
 
Hydroxyl radicals
 
H.V.A.C. filtration systems
 
isoprene
 
nitryl chloride
 
nitric oxide
 
ozone
 
“sick-building syndrome”
 
sulfur dioxide
 
syn-propanethial-S-oxide
 
VOC (Volatile organic compound)
 
World Health Organization

These terms do not always use the IUPAC (International Union of Practical and Applied Chemists) naming system, so they may take more research to accurately find the proper names.
 
You may have your students define a select list of terms from the article.
 
Some past related blog posts include:

06/05/2016      Air Pollution in China
02/24/2017      Cleaner Cookstoves
12/15/2017      Edible Coffee Cup
12/14/18          London Killer Smog in 1952


*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom.  Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
 
Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
 
Remember, buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.

Have a great weekend!


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    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

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