The Effects of Aerosols

Aerosols are becoming recognised as a possible health problem in regards to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and may be a danger to mothers and their babies. Frequent use during pregnancy and early childhood has been linked with diarrhoea and earache in infants and headaches and depression in mothers.

Indirectly, aerosols can add to a clouds condensation level, making the cloud larger and longer lasting. Directly aerosols can reflect sunlight away from earth, therefore cooling it. Aerosol cooling effects have been used to explain why observed global warming over the last century is only 0.6°C rather than the predicted 1°C.

To keep contents pressurized for that push-button convenience, aerosols contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which create ground level ozone and are a primary component of smog, never mind being harmful to your health. The amount of VOCs in these products began to be regulated in the early ‘90s, but conservative estimates say that VOC emissions from consumer products still represent at least 2% of all VOC emissions.

Human influences are without doubt changing the global climate. Currently it is estimated that the cooling effects of man-made sulphate aerosols exceed the warming effects of the last century’s increase of greenhouse gases.

*References; The University of New south Wales - Nasa Aero Earth - Green is Sexy - BBC news - 21st Jan 2008