hen wildfire smoke filled the skies of Oregon’s southern Willamette Valley in 2018, many residents kept their doors closed and windows shut, thinking they were safe from polluted air.
But results of a preliminary Oregon State University study show that the air inside their homes contained higher concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, known as PAHs – a family of chemicals that are known to have the potential to cause cancer – than the PAH concentrations outside.
Though preliminary, these results indicate that the household indoor environment may be worse for PAH exposure than outdoors, said study corresponding author Kim Anderson, an environmental chemist and Extension specialist in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
“People think air inside their house is perfectly clean, and that if we close all the windows when it is smoky outside there will be zero contaminants inside. That’s just not true,” Anderson said.
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