Humans may be fueling global warming by breathing, a new study suggests.
“Exhaled human breath can contain small and high concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which contribute to global warming,” according to research published last week in the UK journal PLOS.
Methane and nitrous oxide exhaled by humans make up about 0.1 of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, the paper says.
These gases are in addition to the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans.
The study, led by Dr Nicholas Cowan from the UK’s Center for Ecology and Hydrology, involved 104 adult volunteers and found that every one of them exhaled nitrous oxide, while 31 per cent exhaled methane.
Those who don’t exhale methane in their breath may still produce “ionic flatus,” the study said, referring to belching and flatulence.
The study – led by Dr. Nicholas Cowan from the UK’s Center for Ecology and Hydrology – involved 104 adult volunteers. Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com
“We report only breath emissions in this study, and flatus emissions may significantly increase these values, although there is no literature characterizing these emissions for people in the UK,” the research team wrote.
“Assuming that livestock and other wild animals also exhale N2O emissions, there may still be a small but important unknown source of N2O emissions in the UK, which could account for more than 1% of national-scale emissions,” they added. .
The concentration of the gas in the study samples allowed researchers to estimate that human breath accounts for 0.05 per cent of UK methane emissions and 0.1 per cent of nitrous oxide.
The study did not reveal a link between exhaled gas and diet.
“Increased concentrations of both CH4 and N2O in the breath of vegetarians and meat eaters were similar in magnitude,” the researchers said. “Based on these results, we can state that, when estimating emissions from the UK population, diet or future dietary changes may not be important when estimating emissions [exhale] across the UK as a whole.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
