Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that evaporate easily at room temperature. These VOCs may cause harmful health effects, and have been linked to everything from headaches to cancer. VOCs are commonly emitted from everyday items such as carpets, vinyl floors, upholstery fabrics, pint, air fresheners, and even cosmetics.

You can’t see them, but they’re all around us. They aren’t listed as ingredients on the objects we bring in our home, but they’re often there. The Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, a wide range of carbon-based molecules (organic compounds) used in a wide range of products that find their way into our homes. Under normal conditions, they vaporize, effectively leaving their host and entering the air (that’s the “volatile” part) where they combine with other airborne compounds that makes it heard to breath.

The U.S. EPA definesVOCs as “any compound of carbon, excluding carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, and ammonium carbonate, which participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions,” but also includes a list of dozens of exceptions for compounds “determined to have negligible photochemical reactivity.”

Though they exist everywhere in the environment — the most common Volatile Organic Compounds is methane, which comes from everything from wetlands to cow farts and other ruminant gases to rice agriculture — they are most well-known for the harm they can cause indoors, where they can be introduced via paint, carpets, furnishings, and cleaning agents.

Volatile Organic Compounds contribute to poor indoor air quality, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates is often two to five times worse than the air outside, but concentrations of VOCs can be up to 1,000 times greater indoors than out! Common VOCs include formaldehyde, used in many glues and adhesives, including those found in wood veneers, plywood and particle board, and polyurethane, which is used in many foams, paints, varnishes, and construction sealants.

Volatile Organic Compoundsfrom products (paint, carpets, vinyl, furniture, est.) gets off-gas VOCs into the air, contributing to poor indoor air quality and consequently present a danger to human health. At high concentrations, some VOCs can cause chronic and acute health effects; others are known carcinogens.

To avoid and/or reduce presents of VOCs in your home, it’s recommended to use water-based  glues, adhesives, finishes, and soy-based foams. Buying or making your own non toxic and green cleaners helps ensure that you aren’t adding toxins to the air when you clean them.

By Collin Dunn via Treehugger ;

Source: US Environmental Protection Agency

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In 2006, a study conducted by scientists at University of California, Berkeley for the California Air Resources Board revealed that terpenes-a class of chemicals found in pine, lemon, and orange oils, but themselves are not considered harmful-can react with indoor ozone to create formaldehyde, which the researchers dubbed a “respiratory irritant classified as a group one carcinogen.”

But terpenes are not the only ingredients under investigation. Naphthalene, dichlorobenzene (specifically 1,4 DCB), along with synthetic musks and “parfums” have all raised red flags in other studies, as well as by activist groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. Air fresheners and aerosols are also a common source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2004, a long-running study by the University of Bristol, which has followed the growth and development of 14,000 children since before birth, noted that 32 percent more babies developed diarrhea in homes where air fresheners-whether they were sticks, sprays, or aerosols-were used on a daily basis, compared with homes where they were used once a week or less. The babies also suffered significantly higher incidences of earache.

If that’s not nearly bad enough, a recent investigation of 14 common air fresheners by the National Resources Defense Counciluncovered pthalates, which are known to cause birth defects, as well as interfere with the production of testosterone, in 12 of them-even products marketed as “all-natural” and “unscented.”

From the NRDC’s “Clearing the Air: Hidden Hazards of Air Fresheners.”DEP: di-ethyl phthalate; DBP: di-n-butyl phthalate; DIBP: di-isobutyl phthalate; DMP: di-methyl phthalate; DIHP: di-isohexyl phthalate 

Instead of squirting synthetic air fresheners, here are some ways to freshen your home without the toxins:

1. Throw open the windows and ventilate your home when the air outside is clean

2. Place a slice of lemon into your garburator and turn it on for 30 seconds

3. For an all-natural fragrant spray, fill a mister bottle with filtered water, then add a few drops of your favorite essential oil

4. Place sachets of herbs (such as lavender) in drawers and closets

5. Simmer some apple cider-with a couple of sticks of cinnamon and several whole cloves-over low heat for three to four hours for a delectable air freshener you can also drink

6. Burn a soy candle or use a diffuser with pure, preferably organic, essential oils

7. Alternate baking soda and vinegar to neutralize odors

8. Boil a pot of water with a few cinnamon sticks

By Jasmin Malik Chua via Planet Green

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