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Which is Safer: Indoor Air or Outdoor Air?
May. 7th, 2020 12:39 pmAs a child, I used to go out to play. That's just what kids did in those days. There was school too, of course, but most of us lived within walking distance. We walked there and back and usually went home for lunch too. And we had recess in the morning and the afternoon, up to grade six.
But as I hunched self-consciously through adolescence, I found myself spending more and more time indoors. My homework took up the whole evening. And when I did get a bit of free time, I usually spent it sprawled on the sofa or the bed or the floor, smelling the incense, listening to the music and writing in the diary. Or watching TV.
Then came summer jobs and university, freedom and independence muted by adult responsibilities. In my early twenties, I started working full-time in a series of government library jobs, most of which I would enjoy for a couple of years and grow disenchanted with after that. I still think librarianship was the right career for me, but office politics and bureaucracy could be frustrating and discouraging.
In any case, I basically had a typical office-worker's indoor career in various locations throughout Ottawa and Hull for 35 years. In the seventies, we had oil price shocks and everyone was preoccupied with saving energy. Home owners and Public Works Canada clamoured to make their homes and offices more energy-efficient. In the eighties, there was the UFFI (Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation) scandal and concerns about asbestos. Terrasses de la Chaudiere became known as Terrasses de la Shoddy Air. Then as typewriters gave way to word processors, monitors and desktop computers, there was widespread concern about radiation, especially for workers who were pregnant.
In the nineties and beyond, building codes were updated and there were new rules and regulations about smoke detectors, CO detectors, radon testing and other nifty devices to make us aware of and maybe even enable us to do something about all the potential hazards of our indoor air.
But outdoor air didn't get off scot free either. Whereas earlier we might have enjoyed summer holidays lying on a beach and getting a tan, suddenly the spectre of skin cancer reared its ugly head. And there were organizations like Pollution Probe and Greenpeace warning us about smog and air quality advisories and holes in the ozone layer.
So what do we do? Should we stay cooped up in the house? Or should we go out and enjoy all the green space our city has to offer? Since the pandemic lockdown began, we are getting some decidedly mixed messages!
But as I hunched self-consciously through adolescence, I found myself spending more and more time indoors. My homework took up the whole evening. And when I did get a bit of free time, I usually spent it sprawled on the sofa or the bed or the floor, smelling the incense, listening to the music and writing in the diary. Or watching TV.
Then came summer jobs and university, freedom and independence muted by adult responsibilities. In my early twenties, I started working full-time in a series of government library jobs, most of which I would enjoy for a couple of years and grow disenchanted with after that. I still think librarianship was the right career for me, but office politics and bureaucracy could be frustrating and discouraging.
In any case, I basically had a typical office-worker's indoor career in various locations throughout Ottawa and Hull for 35 years. In the seventies, we had oil price shocks and everyone was preoccupied with saving energy. Home owners and Public Works Canada clamoured to make their homes and offices more energy-efficient. In the eighties, there was the UFFI (Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation) scandal and concerns about asbestos. Terrasses de la Chaudiere became known as Terrasses de la Shoddy Air. Then as typewriters gave way to word processors, monitors and desktop computers, there was widespread concern about radiation, especially for workers who were pregnant.
In the nineties and beyond, building codes were updated and there were new rules and regulations about smoke detectors, CO detectors, radon testing and other nifty devices to make us aware of and maybe even enable us to do something about all the potential hazards of our indoor air.
But outdoor air didn't get off scot free either. Whereas earlier we might have enjoyed summer holidays lying on a beach and getting a tan, suddenly the spectre of skin cancer reared its ugly head. And there were organizations like Pollution Probe and Greenpeace warning us about smog and air quality advisories and holes in the ozone layer.
So what do we do? Should we stay cooped up in the house? Or should we go out and enjoy all the green space our city has to offer? Since the pandemic lockdown began, we are getting some decidedly mixed messages!
