Industrial Air Pollution: How can you have an effect on reducing it?

When it comes to air pollution, plastic waste is just one part of the problem. Industrial, mass production, especially non renewable energy production and the many industrial processes that use solvents, are major culprits when it comes to destroying air quality with pollutants.

And you don’t have to be a corporate shareholder, owner or worker in one of the industries that is busy polluting our atmosphere. Buying from brands that are guilty of bad or poor environmental practices provides these manufacturers with the profits that incentivise their bad practices.

Whenever possible, we should all buy from small businesses with transparent, environmentally sound and ethical practices. A little research before we shop can hit polluters where it matters most, in the pockets and help persuade them to switch to better and safer production methods.  Demanding brand transparency through our social media channels can help us all to see what these big industries are up to and make responsible buying easier for everyone.

When it comes to choosing cleaning products, going with a brand like TINCTURE gives you a double benefit in terms of combatting air pollution.

Firstly, those air polluting processes involved in manufacturing both the plastic containers used by the big name household brands - and the cleaning solvents they contain - aren’t involved in the production of environmentally friendly products like the Tincture range.

Secondly, you will help to keep your own, internal atmosphere, your ‘indoor air’ free of harmful air pollutants. Just how harmful the big brand cleaning products really are is beginning to be recognised by even the most mainstream authorities. The British Lung Foundation reports:

We use a wide range of household chemicals every day to clean and decorate our homes. These products can contain chemicals sometimes called VOCs - volatile organic compounds. Other cleaning products may contain bleach or ammonia.

VOCs evaporate into the air when we use them or sometimes even while they’re being stored. Products with fragrances such as citrus and pine can react when they are released into the air, forming new chemicals.  Some examples of VOCs are acetone, xylene and formaldehyde. It’s a good idea to avoid breathing in too many VOCs.

... About half of studies suggest that being exposed to these chemicals increases your risk of developing an allergy or asthma. One study recently found that women who clean at home or work have also been found to have an increased decline in their lung function.

Asthma and other allergic diseases have been on the rise in the Western world for decades now. In fact, things have reached the point where they have become a kind of epidemic. More than 150 million Europeans suffer from chronic allergic diseases and it is predicted that half the population of the EU will be affected by the year 2025. In the UK more than 20% of the population is affected by one or more allergic conditions and the rates are rising. The number of sufferers grew by 2 million between 2008 and 2009 while between 1992 and 2012 the number of hospital admissions for anaphylaxis rose by 615%, (Allergy UK).

Given  just how huge this problem has already become, (and that it is only getting worse), it makes no sense at all to continue to use chemically based household cleaning products, which are known to increase the risks of asthma and allergy.

It’s really a simple equation. The more of us who switch to using safe, non-toxic, environmentally responsible and ethical products of all kinds, but especially those without harmful VOC’s), the healthier and safer we will be. And the fewer of us who buy products that pollute the air in the process of manufacture - and then put us at risk in our own homes! – the better for the planet as a whole and our air in particular!