A 10-YEAR study by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, DC, shows that, for some pollutants, the air outside may be safer to breathe than air in the home.
Speaking at the American Lung Association's second annual Science Writers' Forum in Annapolis, Md, Lance A. Wallace, PhD, an environmental scientist at the EPA, said that most exposure to a number of known or suspected carcinogens appears to come primarily from personal activities rather than from industrial sources. This is true, he says, even in the country's most concentrated chemical manufacturing areas.
Daily Dangers
The risks Americans may face from some of the pollutants dumped and leaked into the environment by industry may be less than the risks from activities in the home such as smoking, showering, using room deodorizers, and storing and wearing dry-cleaned clothing, Wallace says. Quoting the comic strip "Pogo," he says, "We have met the enemy