As anyone who’s ever worked in an office can attest, everything from cleaning products to that person with the audacity to microwave leftover fish can have a big impact on the air you breathe.
But, when should you actually be worried about the chemical compounds that might be floating through indoor spaces? Colorado State University Department of Chemistry Professor Delphine Farmer and her team of researchers recently received a $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to investigate this very question.
“Using some fundamental chemistry, we hope to be able to share practical pieces of information that will help people reduce their exposure to toxic chemicals and design their indoor spaces,” Farmer said.
In the coming months, her team will be conducting a series of tests inside an unoccupied office space to determine how a litany of chemicals – ranging from compounds found in household cleaners to nicotine to an amino acid released by cooking meat – circulate through the air and cling to surfaces, providing valuable data about how people can limit their exposure to potentially harmful substances.
“I’ve lived in apartments where you can smell when the people next door smokes. That nicotine is permeating into your space,” Farmer said. “What we don’t know is if that’s OK, and if it stays in your apartment over the long term. These experiments should allow us to start providing some answers on how molecules move through indoor spaces.”
Chemistry Assistant Professor Megan Willis and research scientist Lauren Garofalo will help develop the tests, which will involve using specialized mass spectrometry instruments to track isotopically labeled molecules as they move through the atmosphere and interact with the other molecules in the air and on surfaces.
The hope is to develop models for how different chemicals behave inside, and to show where they might travel in different types of spaces.
“We know a lot about emissions and chemistry in the outdoor atmosphere, and that’s allowed regulators to put rules in place to help improve air quality,” Garofalo said. “Indoors, we’re not there yet, so this study can help us understand what’s happening when different substances are indoors.”
“The ultimate outcome of this project would be that we provide information that really informs what the next generation of buildings looks like,” Willis said. “It can inform how we create healthy indoor spaces.”
About the W. M. Keck Foundation
The W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company. One of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, the W. M. Keck Foundation supports outstanding science, engineering and medical research. The Foundation also supports undergraduate education and maintains a program in Southern California to support arts and culture, education, health and community service projects.
