The EPA & Toxic Emissions

In the years 2010-2015, the CDC counted 2,244 deaths from unintentional carbon monoxide (CO) poising in the United States. These deaths predominated in winter and were caused by devices that burn fuel such as charcoal grills in enclosed areas with poor ventilation. Regulating VOCs such as carbon monoxide (CO) is the job of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA is a regulatory arm of the Federal government and its creation was a result of the landmark Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970.  The EPA has been tasked with identifying environmental problems, establishing consistent compliance standards towards addressing keeping our planet still a safe place to live, and the enacting of enforcement of environmentally sound practices. We will go into this further when we talk about the EPA.

As we’ve discussed previously, VOCs pt1, put unto the simplest of terms: VOC is the standard acronym for Volatile Organic Compound. There are thousands of products that contain VOCs from pesticides, desktop printers, adhesives, glues, even permanent markers. In the medical industry, even Sulfonamides (Sulfa drugs), used to treat a variety of common infections are manufactured starting with separating Sulfur from crude oil at the refinery. A significant majority of these products are mostly non-toxic, It is the extremely poisonous and volatile variety that cause an immediate concern.

With our environmentally friendly Firestarters – classified as VOCs, we are concerned with two different aspects of this product that present danger: Toxicity, and Flashpoint (volatility).

First, Toxicity. Igniting the A+A Price Firestarters alone only contributes negligible toxic VOCs. However, when used to light a fuel such as wood (also classified as a VOC) and charcoal (which is basically pure carbon) the combined toxicity from emissions (carbon monoxide (CO),  carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) for wood, and carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and soot from charcoal can result in concentrations that will have deadly consequences without proper ventilation. Cooking & grilling should be performed outdoors, fireplaces need to be adequately ventilated. The A+A Price line of Firestarter products place a Warning label on our packaging because although non-toxic in-and-of-themselves, when used to ignite wood-or carbon (charcoal) based fuels they can become dangerous without adequate ventilation.

At A+A price we take seriously the environment and the health of our customers. In our next blog post, we will discuss volatility.

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