Indoor Air Quality - Sick Building Syndrome

It is often thought that the air inside buildings is much cleaner than the one outside, with cars, buses and factories spewing out pollution. In fact, indoor air can often be a hundred times or more polluted than the outside air.

In modern homes and offices, the amount of fresh air has been limited, to save energy. At the same time, we use hundreds of toxic chemicals in our cleaning products, perfumes, paints, carpets, computers and furniture. Add to this soup the ozone generated by laser printers and copies, and you have indoor smog. The indoor smog consists of what is called Volatile Organic Compounds, VOC, such as:

ChemicalSource
acetonehuman breath, cosmetics, fragrances
ammoniacleaning products
alpha-pinenedeodorants, etc
benzenelaser printers, particle board, paint, tobacco
benzaldehydedetergent, fragrances
benzyl acetateair fresheners, fragrances
chloroformtap water (chlorinated)
formaldehydeparticle boards, carpets, clothes, glue
limonenedeodorants, disinfectants, fragrances
terpinendeodorants, fragrances
tolueneglue, laser printers, paint, particle board
trichloroethanedry-cleaned clothes
trichloroethylenephotocopiers
xyleneglue, laser printers, paint, particle board

Things to avoid:
laser printersphoto copiersfax machines
gasolinediesel fumesnatural gas
LysolCloroxmost cleaners
marker penswhite-outink
nail polish removerhair spraycosmetics
soft plasticsplastic cement
disinfectantsinsecticidemoth balls
cologne"air fresheners"fragrances
nylonrayonpolyester
fabric softenersmost detergents

A recent Swedish study now also includes flame retarding chemicals in office appliances as a problem.

If you are curious about chemical in perfumes/fragrances.

Sick building syndrome has been covered by a NOVA program on PBS. One of the examples is the famous incident in the new EPA building.

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