Study captures high body emissions during workouts

One sweaty, huffing, exercising person releases as many chemicals from their body as up to five sedentary people, according to a new study from the University of Colorado Boulder. And in particular, these human emissions, including amino acids from sweat or acetone from respiration, combine chemically with bleach cleaners to create new airborne chemicals with unknown effects on quality. indoor air.

“Humans are a major source of indoor emissions,” Zachary Finewax, CIRES research scientist and lead author of the new study, said in the current edition of Indoor air. “And chemicals in indoor air, whether from our bodies or from cleaning products, don’t just disappear, they live and travel around places like gyms, re- react with other chemicals. “

In 2018, the CU Boulder team installed a weight room at Dal Ward Athletics Center – a campus facility for university student-athletes, from weightlifters to cheerleaders – with a suite of air sampling equipment. Instruments collected data from both the pressure chamber and supply air, measuring a slew of air chemicals in real time before, during and after the work of CU athletes. The team found that athletes’ groups performed 3-5 times as many stretches while working out, compared to when at rest.

Using our state-of-the-art equipment, this was the first time indoor air conditioning in a gym was performed with this high level of comfort. We were able to capture emissions in real time to see exactly how much chemical the athletes were emitting, and to what extent. ”

Demetrios Pagonis, Postdoctoral Researcher at CIRES and Co-Author

Many gym facilities often use chlorine bleach-based products to heal sweaty equipment. And while these cleansing products work to kill surface bacteria – they also come together with releases from sweat – mix to create a fresh cocktail of chemicals.

The team was the first to observe a chemical group called N-chloraldimines – the product of an amino acid bleach reaction – in gym air. That meant that chlorine from a bleach spray machine sprayed on equipment reacted with the amino acids released from sweating bodies, the authors report.

And while more research is needed to determine what specific effects it may have on indoor air quality, the results of chemical reactions of ammonia with bleach can be harmful to human health.

“With people spending around 90 per cent of our time indoors, it is vital that we understand how chemicals are transported in the places where we live,” said Joost. de Gouw, CIRES Fellow, professor of chemistry at CU Boulder and corresponding author of the paper.While the researchers collected all the data for this pre-pandemic study, the team says that their results show that a modern gym with minimal use and good ventilation could still be relatively safe for work, especially if masks are used.