When cleaning floors with bleach, do not turn on the lights

Many people use a lemon or orange scented cleaner to clean the floor and turn on the lights to see the stains, but this combination creates super fine dust.

Cleaning products with lemon scents and detergents can create indoor pollutants.(Photo: Pixabay).

According to research published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on October 2, scientists discovered the gases in the bleach when combined with light and limonene in citrus peels, citrus will create fusion. SOAs pollutants .

Bleached water contains chlorine compounds such as hypochlorous acid (HOCl) and chlorine (Cl ₂ ), which can accumulate heavily indoors, especially in poorly ventilated houses. These gases will react with other common household chemicals like limonene - an orange or lemon compound added to many cleaning and cooling products. In addition, indoor light or sunlight through windows can split HOCl and Cl ₂ into hydroxyl radicals and chlorine atoms, reacting with other compounds to form air particles called aerosols , organic gases. secondary muscle (SOAs).

To better understand the process of indoor air pollution generation, researchers from the University of Toronto and Bucknell University in Pennsylvania use enclosed chambers to trigger reactions between limonene, chlorine and HOCl. In the dark, limonene and HOCl / Cl ₂ quickly react to produce more volatile compounds. When the team turned on fluorescent lights or brought sunlight into the chamber, these volatile compounds combined with hydroxyl radicals and chlorine atoms to form SOAs.

SOAs is the main component of ultrafine dust. These small particles can cause haze and go deep into the lungs causing disease.