A recent study suggests that humans might be contributing to global warming through the simple act of breathing.
“Exhaled human breath can contain small, elevated concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which contribute to global warming,” according to research released last week by the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology.
Contribution of human breathing to greenhouse gas emissions: Insights from the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology research
The research indicates that the methane and nitrous oxide released when humans breathe account for approximately 0.1 percent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is in addition to the carbon dioxide humans exhale, as mentioned in the study, published in the UK journal PLOS.
Even for those who didn’t exhale methane in their breath, the study suggested that they likely released the gas through “ion flatus,” which refers to burping and flatulence.
Dr. Nicholas Cowan from the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology led a study with 104 adult volunteers. The study revealed that every participant exhaled nitrous oxide, and 31 percent also exhaled methane.
“We report only emissions in breath in this study, and flatus emissions are likely to increase these values significantly, though no literature characterizes these emissions for people in the UK,” as per the research team.
“Assuming that livestock and other wild animals also exhale emissions of N2O, there may still be a small but significant unaccounted-for source of N2O emissions in the UK, which could account for more than 1% of national-scale emissions,” they added.
Human contributions to methane and nitrous oxide emissions unrelated to diet, study finds
By analyzing the gas concentrations in the study samples, researchers estimated that human breath contributes to 0.05 percent of the UK’s methane emissions and 0.1 percent of nitrous oxide emissions.
Interestingly, the study did not find a connection between the gases exhaled and individuals’ diets.
“Concentration enhancement of both CH4 and N2O in the breath of vegetarians and meat consumers are similar in magnitude,” the researchers stated. According to Daily Citizen, veggie burgers might not just be a lesser version of the classic hamburger; they could pose some issues themselves.
“Based on these results, we can state that, when estimating emissions from a population within the UK, diet or future diet changes are unlikely to be important when estimating emissions [exhale] across the UK as a whole.”
