Air Emission Survey
Discussion Question 1
•Resource: Emissions Calculator Web site
•Due Date: Day 2 [Main forum]
•Go to the Emissions Calculator Web site at http://airhead.cnt.org/Calculator/?sid=a743a150a5f5ff4c72817e723b7c8c14 •Fill out the survey to the best of your knowledge to calculate the total pounds of air pollution your household emits.
•Post a response to the following: What was your highest contributor? What can you do to lower your total? What is your greatest challenge in lowering your total? When you review other students’ posts, suggest how they might control air emissions for their situations.
Results Are you an AirHead?
LOGIN | REGISTER
________________________________________
CHECK OUT OUR CALCULATIONS »
________________________________________
This graph-your emissions profile-measures the pollution you created over the course of a month. You emitted 2483 pounds of …show more content…
air pollution in June.*
Say what? 2483 pounds is a lot of chocolate, but is it a lot of pollution? You can judge by comparing yourself with the second bar on the graph, which represents the emissions profile for an average American--1,654 pounds. Many would argue that just one pound of pollution is too much, but we live in an imperfect and complicated world, so set your own goals for where you would like to be on this graph tomorrow or next year.
Your biggest source of emissions in June came from the category: Driving. We have provided some suggestions for how to cut emissions in this area. Some of the changes we suggest are easier than others, but we hope they all help you imagine ways that you can fit emissions reductions into your life and better prioritize your emissions reduction actions. If you only had time to cut your emissions in one area, what should it be?
Your emissions profile tells you how much pollution results from your lifestyle; our product search tool helps you easily improve your profile by providing emissions data on a variety of common household products.
And as a registered AirHead user, you can come back every month and re-calculate your emissions to track your progress. If your emissions seem uncharacteristically high this month-because you took a plane trip or because, say, natural gas prices are unreasonably high-check back again for the satisfaction of seeing your profile improve. We're not interested in artificially inflating your profile; browbeating isn't really our style.
What was your highest contributor? What can you do to lower your total? What is your greatest challenge in lowering your total?
The highest contributor of emission in June from the members of my house came from driving a SUV. Between the five Marines living in the house we emitted approximately 1210 lbs of pollution into the environment this month from the vehicle alone. The next highest contributor came from an airplane delivering over 835 lbs of pollution into the environment.
To lower the total amount of pollution that we contribute to the environment, we can use the vehicle less by walking to work. Because we work about a mile from where we live, this should not cause too much of a problem.
The greatest challenge in lowering the total amount of pollution that we emit into the environment would be to convince the other four Marines that walking a few times a month will help. Because the weather is extremely hot this time of year, I do not see them walking rater then riding in an air conditioned SUV.
Discussion Question 2
•Resource: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site
•Due Date: Day 4 [Main forum]
•Review the variety of indoor pollutant hazards posted on the EPA Web site at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/insidest.html#Refguide •Post your response to the following: Describe at least three potential indoor air quality
(IAQ) hazards in your home. What are the possible health impacts of each hazard? Do you believe your health is at risk based on your exposure to the three IAQ hazards?
Why or why not? What can you do to reduce exposure to the hazard?
Describe at least three potential indoor air quality (IAQ) hazards in your home. What are the possible health impacts of each hazard? Do you believe your health is at risk based on your exposure to the three IAQ hazards? Why or why not? What can you do to reduce exposure to the hazard?
Three potential indoor air quality hazards are: carbon monoxide, environmental tobacco smoke, and pesticides. Carbon monoxide can come from a number of things. To name a few, exhaust from vehicles in garages attached to the house, tobacco smoke, furnaces, gas and water heaters, woodstoves and fireplaces, as well as gas stoves all have the potential to increase the risk of carbon monoxide pollution in our homes. Environmental tobacco smoke from cigarettes, pipes or cigars will also increase the indoor air quality hazard if smoked inside. In addition, pesticides used to kill insects pose a threat to the quality of our indoor
air.
Each one of these hazards poses specific health problems if we are exposed to them. When exposed to carbon monoxide, it can cause minor symptoms such as fatigue to more serious symptoms such as nausea. It all depends on how much you are exposed to. At very high dosages carbon monoxide is fatal. Environmental tobacco smoke can cause a number of health issues as well. Smoking tobacco or being exposed to the smoke can cause lung cancer, respiratory tract infections, severe asthmas, decreased lung functions, and a number of other things. Pesticides can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation as well as damage to our central nervous system. Pesticides can also increase the risk of cancer.
I personally do not believe that my health is at risk to any of these three indoor air quality hazards. I do not think we have any issues with carbon monoxide because we do not have a garage attached to the house so carbon monoxide from the vehicle is not a threat. We have our appliances checked routinely to ensure they are working properly. In addition, I do not have to worry about smoke from tobacco because we do not allow smoking in the house. The only health problem that I might ever run in to would be from pesticides. We do use them outside for pest control an there might be a small chance that they get tracked inside, but I do not think it poses a big threat.
Even though each one of these hazards poses specific health risks, there are things we can do to reduce exposure to them. To reduce exposure to carbon monoxide, we can not idle our car in garages attached to out house or install an exhaust fan to ventilate the garage. In addition, we can have all furnaces, stoves, chimneys, and heaters checked routinely to ensure that they are working properly. To reduce exposure to tobacco smoke we can: not smoke in our homes, nor allow anyone else to do so. We could make sure that the room we smoke in is properly ventilated if we can not avoid smoking inside. We can limit our exposure to pesticides by: using and storing pesticides exactly as suggested by the manufacturer, ensuring proper ventilation when using indoors, and use other sources of pest controls before resorting to pesticides.
•Resource: Emissions Calculator Web site
•Due Date: Day 2 [Main forum]
•Go to the Emissions Calculator Web site at http://airhead.cnt.org/Calculator/?sid=a743a150a5f5ff4c72817e723b7c8c14 •Fill out the survey to the best of your knowledge to calculate the total pounds of air pollution your household emits.
•Post a response to the following: What was your highest contributor? What can you do to lower your total? What is your greatest challenge in lowering your total? When you review other students’ posts, suggest how they might control air emissions for their situations.
Results Are you an AirHead?
LOGIN | REGISTER
________________________________________
CHECK OUT OUR CALCULATIONS »
________________________________________
This graph-your emissions profile-measures the pollution you created over the course of a month. You emitted 2483 pounds of …show more content…
air pollution in June.*
Say what? 2483 pounds is a lot of chocolate, but is it a lot of pollution? You can judge by comparing yourself with the second bar on the graph, which represents the emissions profile for an average American--1,654 pounds. Many would argue that just one pound of pollution is too much, but we live in an imperfect and complicated world, so set your own goals for where you would like to be on this graph tomorrow or next year.
Your biggest source of emissions in June came from the category: Driving. We have provided some suggestions for how to cut emissions in this area. Some of the changes we suggest are easier than others, but we hope they all help you imagine ways that you can fit emissions reductions into your life and better prioritize your emissions reduction actions. If you only had time to cut your emissions in one area, what should it be?
Your emissions profile tells you how much pollution results from your lifestyle; our product search tool helps you easily improve your profile by providing emissions data on a variety of common household products.
And as a registered AirHead user, you can come back every month and re-calculate your emissions to track your progress. If your emissions seem uncharacteristically high this month-because you took a plane trip or because, say, natural gas prices are unreasonably high-check back again for the satisfaction of seeing your profile improve. We're not interested in artificially inflating your profile; browbeating isn't really our style.
What was your highest contributor? What can you do to lower your total? What is your greatest challenge in lowering your total?
The highest contributor of emission in June from the members of my house came from driving a SUV. Between the five Marines living in the house we emitted approximately 1210 lbs of pollution into the environment this month from the vehicle alone. The next highest contributor came from an airplane delivering over 835 lbs of pollution into the environment.
To lower the total amount of pollution that we contribute to the environment, we can use the vehicle less by walking to work. Because we work about a mile from where we live, this should not cause too much of a problem.
The greatest challenge in lowering the total amount of pollution that we emit into the environment would be to convince the other four Marines that walking a few times a month will help. Because the weather is extremely hot this time of year, I do not see them walking rater then riding in an air conditioned SUV.
Discussion Question 2
•Resource: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site
•Due Date: Day 4 [Main forum]
•Review the variety of indoor pollutant hazards posted on the EPA Web site at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/insidest.html#Refguide •Post your response to the following: Describe at least three potential indoor air quality
(IAQ) hazards in your home. What are the possible health impacts of each hazard? Do you believe your health is at risk based on your exposure to the three IAQ hazards?
Why or why not? What can you do to reduce exposure to the hazard?
Describe at least three potential indoor air quality (IAQ) hazards in your home. What are the possible health impacts of each hazard? Do you believe your health is at risk based on your exposure to the three IAQ hazards? Why or why not? What can you do to reduce exposure to the hazard?
Three potential indoor air quality hazards are: carbon monoxide, environmental tobacco smoke, and pesticides. Carbon monoxide can come from a number of things. To name a few, exhaust from vehicles in garages attached to the house, tobacco smoke, furnaces, gas and water heaters, woodstoves and fireplaces, as well as gas stoves all have the potential to increase the risk of carbon monoxide pollution in our homes. Environmental tobacco smoke from cigarettes, pipes or cigars will also increase the indoor air quality hazard if smoked inside. In addition, pesticides used to kill insects pose a threat to the quality of our indoor
air.
Each one of these hazards poses specific health problems if we are exposed to them. When exposed to carbon monoxide, it can cause minor symptoms such as fatigue to more serious symptoms such as nausea. It all depends on how much you are exposed to. At very high dosages carbon monoxide is fatal. Environmental tobacco smoke can cause a number of health issues as well. Smoking tobacco or being exposed to the smoke can cause lung cancer, respiratory tract infections, severe asthmas, decreased lung functions, and a number of other things. Pesticides can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation as well as damage to our central nervous system. Pesticides can also increase the risk of cancer.
I personally do not believe that my health is at risk to any of these three indoor air quality hazards. I do not think we have any issues with carbon monoxide because we do not have a garage attached to the house so carbon monoxide from the vehicle is not a threat. We have our appliances checked routinely to ensure they are working properly. In addition, I do not have to worry about smoke from tobacco because we do not allow smoking in the house. The only health problem that I might ever run in to would be from pesticides. We do use them outside for pest control an there might be a small chance that they get tracked inside, but I do not think it poses a big threat.
Even though each one of these hazards poses specific health risks, there are things we can do to reduce exposure to them. To reduce exposure to carbon monoxide, we can not idle our car in garages attached to out house or install an exhaust fan to ventilate the garage. In addition, we can have all furnaces, stoves, chimneys, and heaters checked routinely to ensure that they are working properly. To reduce exposure to tobacco smoke we can: not smoke in our homes, nor allow anyone else to do so. We could make sure that the room we smoke in is properly ventilated if we can not avoid smoking inside. We can limit our exposure to pesticides by: using and storing pesticides exactly as suggested by the manufacturer, ensuring proper ventilation when using indoors, and use other sources of pest controls before resorting to pesticides.