Alaska gasoline is high in benzene, which makes
an attached garage a bad place to store gasoline-
powered engines.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.
Because of our gasoline and our climate, Alaskans who live in homes with attached garages are at higher risk of exposure to harmful chemicals in the air. A few scientists are trying to find out the size of that risk.
Mary Ellen Gordian of Anchorage is a physician and a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage who is beginning a study of benzene levels in which she hopes to test 400 local homes. In a preliminary study of Anchorage homes with attached garages, she found that one-third of the air samples from those homes had unhealthy levels of benzene.
“We had families exposed to levels way above the minimal risk level for acute exposure, and they’re being exposed to it 24-7 because it’s in their home,” she said.