At a friend’s apartment in Toronto, Ontario, unknown combinations of petrochemical substances transform at room temperature, blurring the lines of subject, object, and atmosphere. This image captures a series of secondary reactions occurring one evening between multiple sources of toxicant vapour. Belmont cigarettes, nag champa incense, and the blue glow of an old gas stove restlessly find one another’s molecular bonds in a living room.
We are startled by a very high total volatile organic compound reading on my “Atmotube” personal air monitoring device. From 7pm to 1030pm, the reading is between 3.21-6.51ppm on average. It is well above the level of “1,” when the color turns from green, moderate, to yellow, high. There are many readings which aren’t recorded—I am able to take a screenshot of one that is 32ppm, at the peak of the reaction. Burning cigarettes and incense releases permutations of VOCs which are derived from crude oil, refined, and then processed into upstream products made from benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. The stove gas, likely propane or butane, may have come from either oil refining or natural gas refining. As an old stove that is unvented, it could also be releasing VOCs.
The scene fluctuates before us, out of sight except for the swirls of smoke. Particulate matter from the ash and cooking is released in high amounts, and it absorbs the aerosolized gases, going up to 150 ug/m3, (a good level of PM is below 50). The afterlives of these clouds will be tertiary emissions or sinks, as the VOCs are absorbed and re-released by the surrounding surfaces and furniture, unfolding relative to temperature and ventilation.
I wonder about this becoming-vapour, and its diffusion in low-income rental spaces with limited ventilation. My friends are lucky they have old windows that open wide. In Toronto, a bylaw was passed in 2008 where apartment buildings with three or more units are required to install window safety latches that prevent windows from opening more than four inches. This is barely enough for ventilation. I wonder about the low-income renters above and below them, and what work data visualization of these combinations might do?
At a friend’s apartment in Toronto, Ontario, unknown combinations of petrochemical substances transform at room temperature, blurring the lines of subject, object, and atmosphere. This image captures a series of secondary reactions occurring one evening between multiple sources of toxicant vapour. Belmont cigarettes, nag champa incense, and the blue glow of an old gas stove restlessly find one another’s molecular bonds in a living room.
We are startled by a very high total volatile organic compound reading on my “Atmotube” personal air monitoring device. From 7pm to 1030pm, the reading is between 3.21-6.51ppm on average. It is well above the level of “1,” when the color turns from green, moderate, to yellow, high. There are many readings which aren’t recorded—I am able to take a screenshot of one that is 32ppm, at the peak of the reaction. Burning cigarettes and incense releases permutations of VOCs which are derived from crude oil, refined, and then processed into upstream products made from benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. The stove gas, likely propane or butane, may have come from either oil refining or natural gas refining. As an old stove that is unvented, it could also be releasing VOCs.
The scene fluctuates before us, out of sight except for the swirls of smoke. Particulate matter from the ash and cooking is released in high amounts, and it absorbs the aerosolized gases, going up to 150 ug/m3, (a good level of PM is below 50). The afterlives of these clouds will be tertiary emissions or sinks, as the VOCs are absorbed and re-released by the surrounding surfaces and furniture, unfolding relative to temperature and ventilation.
I wonder about this becoming-vapour, and its diffusion in low-income rental spaces with limited ventilation. My friends are lucky they have old windows that open wide. In Toronto, a bylaw was passed in 2008 where apartment buildings with three or more units are required to install window safety latches that prevent windows from opening more than four inches. This is barely enough for ventilation. I wonder about the low-income renters above and below them, and what work data visualization of these combinations might do?