Indoor Air Pollution in NIHON

[Big Booger]

[ramchop]

Further, my neighbor still uses a wood stove for heating. What kind of crap is that?

Same kind of crap that drives me to use a razor in the morning rather than an electric buzzing thing. I don't buy into the smoother shave logic, it takes me longer and makes me late for work, in the long term it's probably more expensive.

So why do I do it? Because I like to.

[Kyoto Gaijin]

Air conditioners, unless they are damned good top of the range ones generate a ton of their own indoor pollution problems I've found. They generate *dust*, lots of it, and they build up funghus in their filters which gets conveniently blown into everybody's lungs. They also dry out the air too much which is bad for the health.

Using kerosene heaters without any ventilation is a no-no too, however a kerosene heater (with said water kettle attachment for humidifying) is a really nice cozy warmth.

The main reason I reckon they aren't in use so much anymore these days is because of the very real burn-your-building down kind of danger they bring with them, and not to do with direct physical health/fumes. (they only usually smell in the morning when they are first turned on anyway)

[Taro Toporific]

Using kerosene heaters without any ventilation is a no-no too, however a kerosene heater (with said water kettle attachment for humidifying) is a really nice cozy warmth.
...not to do with direct physical health/fumes. (they only usually smell in the morning when they are first turned on anyway)

USO!

As a minimum, you ought to use a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm with a kerosene heater. Yes, yes I know that most kerosene heaters have a built-in CO detector but most don't function properly (on the older heaters don't have them at all).

Check out the horror stories about bad heaters and stoves at:
http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/letters.htm

Ideally, you need the state-of-the-art CO Monitor/Alarm for your room. Note that carbon monoxide detectors do NOT function as smoke detectors, nor do smoke detectors work as carbon monoxide detectors. You need a Carbon Monoxide detector(s) listed by a qualified, independent testing laboratory. JAS-approved Japanese detectors sold by places like Tokyo Gas and Tokyu Hands are great.

[Kyoto Gaijin]

Using kerosene heaters without any ventilation is a no-no too, however a kerosene heater (with said water kettle attachment for humidifying) is a really nice cozy warmth.
...not to do with direct physical health/fumes. (they only usually smell in the morning when they are first turned on anyway)

USO!

err.. that's why I said using them without ventilation is a no-no. I was going to add in brackets (as plenty of dead students in england will testify) but I thought it might be a little sick - yes, we have these heaters in England too so they aren't just in Georgia or Japan. They're used because they pump out a lot of heat and are cheap.

Most modern ones automatically turn off after an hour or so as a safety precaution.

[Big Booger]

From what I have observed, the smoke continues to be profuse right up to when I need to leave.

Granted I know it gets cozy and warm... I sit right net to the thing.. in fact I had them get a shield to redirect the heat from going directly on my back and baking my shirt to my skin...

In the US, most schools use central air. I mean is it that expensive? I run my home aircon everyday from 5:00 until I go to sleep, usually 12:00 or 1:00. My bill is only about 6000-8000 yen...

I know they are on a budget, but this is unreal... for a country like Japan. At least they could purchase new machines.. hell these are from like the 1910s... old as dirt.. there is no CO meter, they fill it up with gas cans. The first time I saw them, I thought, "holy shit, is this a 3rd world country or what!" I hope they catch on fire and the whole joint burns down... they stink, I hate them, and I wonder if they are killing me, but I have to admit they are very warm and do the job quite nicely. Minimally, I just wished the machines were new and more efficient and had a monitor.
BB

[Taro Toporific]

err.. that's why I said using them without ventilation is a no-no.

Using indoor, unvented ---meaning no chimneys--- heaters pumping out CO directly into your living space is like pissing in your kitchen sink: You can get away with it, but it ain't exactly wise.

There's no damn reason that the office in question should be using foul, cheap-shit, kerosene heater when a modern heat-pump "aircon" is available.

_____________________

Portable Gas Heaters Tied to Infant Breathing Problems
Pollution from wood-burning stoves and gas and kerosene heaters may aggravate airway trouble in babies....These heaters can release fine particles as well as carbon monoxide and nitric dioxide gases, all of which irritate the lungs. Portable gas heaters are often poorly vented and spew these irritants back into the room.

The burning, or combustion, of wood or fuels like natural gas or kerosene can be a formidable source of pollution.....exposure to pollutants from combustion appliances, heaters, and fireplaces also increases the risk of cancer, respiratory infections, heart disease, and retarded fetal development. Children living in homes heated with wood are more likely to develop respiratory illnesses. In the United States, 37 percent of all deaths in the first year of life are the result of lung disease and breathing problems, which are the leading cause of disease and death among newborns, according to the American Lung Association.
There are three primary sources of combustion pollutants in the home. Unvented appliances, such as gas stoves and kerosene heaters, can be worrisome because they do not have an exhaust fan or flue that carries pollutants out of and away from the house.

Carbon Monoxide, The Killer At Home
Carbon monoxide poisoning is the most common accidental poisoning in the United States.

[Kyoto Gaijin]

Don't be so keen to replace them with aircons - recently Tuberculosis has been making a come back in japan. Once one person in a company gets a cold/influenza the entire building tends to get it, not just the people local to that person.

The cleanest and safest heating system I've found in Japan are Delonghi style heaters - enclosed oil heaters (oil based radiators). They heat the room up really well and you can put clothes on them to dry. They run on electricity and involve no moving parts so dust/air particles aren't a problem.

[Taro Toporific]

[quote=""Kyoto Gaijin"
The cleanest and safest heating system I've found in Japan are Delonghi style heaters - enclosed oil heaters (oil based radiators).[/quote"]

Darn right. Those oil-filled electric radiators are the only thing I will use in my music room! Regular heaters of are hell on kotos, jamisen, and traditional wooden instuments in terms of expansion/contraction.

[den4]

But since Japan won't go for central heating, unless you live on a US military base or something like that, I guess you're stuck with whatever you have....
I'd ask for some form of ventilation system fix, however....

on the bright side, there is some recent research being done that does support the notion that what does not kill you makes you stronger...
in this discovery article....

hormesis research:
http://www.discover.com/dec_02/featradiation.html

[Big Booger]

The thing is, they already have an airconditioning system installed. It is already there, 6 large airconditioners, connected via duct work. It is used in the summer to cool, but in the winter they shut it off, and bring in these stupid kerosene heaters.
If they didn't have the new system I wouldn't even bother to write this, but they do and that is what gets the best of me. It's like someone buying a Ferrari, and putting it in a garage, never to drive it, only to drive their lawnmower to places they want to go.. just plain stupid, IMHO.

Just another quirk of Japan that I have to adjust too I suppose...
BB

[Taro Toporific]

The thing is, they already have an airconditioning system installed. It is already there, 6 large airconditioners, connected via duct work.... It's like someone buying a Ferrari, and putting it in a garage, never to drive it, only to drive their lawnmower to places they want to go.. just plain stupid, IMHO.

I feel the pain, bro.

It just typical cheapshit Japanese behavior. For my 17 years at Maybe-the-Largest-Electronics-Kaisha Inc., those kinds of heating problems were the norm, even though we made the best damn state-of-the-art, scroll compresser, heat-pump air-cons on the planet. Sheesh.

[Taro Toporific]

wouldnt be so bad if they knew what insulation was....all the dwellings arejust concrete shells.

Insulation would confuse the jika-tabe/construction boys since they haven't the foggest about vapor barriors.

My favorite time-killer in a boring Japanese meetings is to count the UBC building code violations. Normally government buildings are the winners shoddy/tenuge construction, but visible concrete 'cold joints" in highrises are the real eye-opener here in the land of earthquakes.

[kamome]

Might I add another source of indoor pollution: copy machine and printer fumes in the office. Safe office procedure would be to put faxes, printers, and copiers in a separate room to keep toxic fumes from polluting the air, but my office puts a printer by every other seat.

[Big Booger]

Shall I add to the pile?

One day I came to work to see the janitorial service guy cleaning the floor with some unknown chemical, he was getting it all over the place. The windows were shut, the place smelt like a Nuclear Reactor, and wasn't wearing any kind of protective gear, other than a mask that looked like it was used for hospital rooms...

Tobacco is another biggie on my list of pollutants. I am not a wacko out to get everyone for smoking... in fact I think it is crazy to ban outdoor smoking period, yet Japanese in certain sections of Tokyo AFAIK, have banned it... yet they smoke like the A-Bomb in Hiroshima, in the office..
hilarious...

And last but not least, we have a mini-gomi-center at my workplace... They have this shoddy handmade incinerator and every morning, I just have to open the window to inhale the first days Dioxin Dose... it is nasty.. imagine putting a CD in a microwave for 2 years on high power... just ponder it...
STINKY!!!
hehehe
BB

[GomiGirl]

Big Booger,

Where on earth do you work? I have been working in Tokyo for a long time and have never had these sorts of problems.

We separate out our burnable and non-burnable and recycle all the zillions of PET bottles of coke and oolong cha that my engineers seem to consume everyday at an alarming rate.

The servers are kept in a separate room to stop us being irradiated and to reduce the noise polution. We do have a heap of printers - colour and B&W but they don't smell.

Everybody goes outside to smoke if they smoke at all, and we use our heating cooling system everyday that is mounted in the ceiling. Some people have electric bar heaters under their desks to keep their tootsies warm in Winter. This is the same in every office I have worked in and visited.

Sounds like you have a really dodgey situation and perhaps it is time for you to quietly suggest that kerosene heaters may be causing reduced productivity or absenteism which would be costing the company a darn sight more than using the electric heaters etc.

I know you are in inaka but still they can read health studies and reguations there can't they. If you don't want to confront the boss, perhaps you should just leave information in a place where it will be seen.

Just my two cents - don't suffer in silence if you have a rational and approachable boss.

[Big Booger]

I work in a governmental position, out in the boondocks... way out.. they have no standards, except what was passed down from generation to generation. Burn the gomi, then we don't have to pay for the disposal...

Cheap IMHO. Oh they do separate the pet bottles and metal gomi, but a lot of it goes straight into the incinerator...
I have thought about joining the local union, and lodging protests, but I hear the unions in Japan cannot protest..????

I might do as you say, and print out 10-50 copies of reports, in Japanese, of the importance of testing for indoor air pollution, the damage unventilated kerosene heaters can do and so on, and leaving it in the lounge, or in their memo boxes...
thanks for the suggestion.
BB

[American Oyaji]

Hey Booger, here's something I learned from living out in the boonies.
Nothing is EVER replaced until it breaks. Thats just how it works. I loved living in Aomori cuz everything just slowed down in the winter.
I felt like I lived in some retro time warp. Lots of old heaters and people and old equipment that ran. Old businesses still in business.

I also worked for a gomiyasan. They BUILT their own wood stoves.

There is nothing worse than the fumes that come off a a drum barrel turned stove that is burning all the chemicals that made up the paint and any chemicals that were once stored in a barrel....

But they put out some nice heat.

[ramchop]

Nothing is EVER replaced until it breaks.

... and there's the solution BB. Break it!

[Big Booger]

I might try that too. Maybe add gas to the kerosene filler tank LOL
just kidding...
I can't break it, as that would be unethical...
but I would like to. And about the barrels, my neighbor burns everything in the barrel stove. It has a smoke stack welded to the top of it, and looks like a pot-bellied stove. But it puts out the stinkiest smells in the world, like the old bat is burning car tires, plutonium, Hydrochloric Acid or something...
I just hate it.
BB

[jasper]

I'm talking outdoor here - but same vein.
Retired neighbour used to burn his garbage every morning on the street, just outside the wall around his house, in a modified big tin can. Guess he thought he was being helpful, cutting down on garbage to throw out. But I saw him everyday burning styrofoam, pet bottles, you name it.

Quiet call to the Ward office (they maintain your confidentiality if requested). Visit to him by two inspectors asking him why he burns the garbage and politely explaining the dangers posed by many items.

They called some time later and reported that he denied burning garbage, we reported that since their visit his burning had stopped (and since then it hasn't started again in years).

No neighbourly confrontations and nobody loses face I guess - and no more of those lovely morning dioxin and what else fumes. Don't know if this system works in the Inaka.

Jasper

[Taro Toporific]

I know from experience that many places in Japan, especially in the inaka use kerosene,wood, and coal heating during the winter, and I was wondering about the effects of it on your health. I actually sit less than a meter from the kerosene heater at my workplace...

A recent study by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency regarding office ergonomics suggests that female office workers are more likely to suffer from health problems due to poor office and workstation design than are their male counterparts.

[Big Booger]

I sort of solved it. Now whenever I come in, I turn on all of the exhaust fans, and I crack a window near my desk.

I also regularly shut the damn thing off, when it gets over 28-30C...
hehehe

I just wished they would buy new heaters if they really needed to use kerosene to save money.

BB

[cstaylor]

Taro! I have a question... got any good references for ergo equipment in Japan? My wife is starting to get back problems from the chairs in the office (she's very short), so I'd like to get her some replacement equipment.

[Taro Toporific]

I don't mean to be rude...., but what does Inaka mean?

Inaka = hicksville

It's important to remember that Japanese DESPISE all things non-urban. Tokyo is the center of the Universe---the further from the center, the more irrelevant.

[Big Booger]

The boondocks in Japan are about as farked as you can get while living here.. just my opinion of course. But I think you get a more traditional, if there is such a thing, experience living in the inaka (aka: the sticks)
BB

[Taro Toporific]

I have a question... got any good references for ergo equipment in Japan?

In one word: AERON


Yes, yes, I know Aeron is overpriced ($1,250 list, $900 street, $400 eBay) and dot.bomb retro, but Aeron is the best.

Aeron is handled by Herman Miller Japan with an bilingual English site:
http://www2.hermanmiller.com/global/japan/en/index.html

Of course many other chairs can be fine...check out places like Tokyu Hands and OfficeMax.

I was tangentally involved with the website of Arflex Japan, an Italian brand that had very nice/expensive stuff ergometrically speaking.

... got any good references for ergo equipment in Japan?

Some easy Research is here.


More L8r...

[Taro Toporific]

Ergonomics Research
Reducing back pain while sitting

My wife is starting to get back problems from the chairs in the office (she's very short), so I'd like to get her some replacement equipment.

I'll assume it's your own office, not a massive BORG-of-Japan-Inc office like mine. When I brought my own chair, the hierarchical EARTHQUAKE registered 7 on the Japanese scale. (Hint to those in the real world: The Japanese office chair caste system is iron clad and pet aliens and FG do not warrant an Aeron.)

Like I said before, just snag a cheap Aeron off eBay.

Other cheaper solutions are possible...
I use a custom insert for back support designed for wheelchairs from "Abilities Unlimited Japan" here on the job with my Borg-Japan-Inc designated chair.

You've ever thought about the ergometric "correctness" having your wife's legs dangling from the front of a chair? Just a plain old foot lift thingie available at any large office store will help.

Retrofits

Better Back Orthopedic Multi-Purpose Seat

Cheap but good NADA chair

Back supports

Ergonomics FAQ
What is an ergonomic chair?
Look for adjustability and lumbar back supports. Good chairs should be able to accommodate a wide range of shapes and sizes of people. Probably the most important adjustment is seat pan height. It is also important to have the ability to adjust seat pan angle. A padded support for the low back, which is called a lumbar back support, helps reduce the stress on the spine. Before buying a chair, however, it is important to think about the tasks the employee performs and the work environment in which the chair will be used. Specifically, it is critical to remember that work organization affects the amount of time spent sitting in a chair. Organizing the work so that workers can change postures and get up from their chairs may be more important than purchasing the best ergonomic chair available.