Air Purifier News: Are VOCs Polluting Your New Home?

Indoor Air Quality, or IAQ, has become a growing concern. Air purifiers have become a billion dollar business, and home improvement products such as low-VOC paints and formaldehyde-free flooring often tout clean composition. However, is indoor air quality really a problem? Are the above solutions really able to help clean the air in our homes or workplaces?

For the past decade, the EPA has noted that indoor air can up to 10 times worse than the air outside. Indoor pollution sources that release gases or particles into the air are the primary causes of indoor air quality in homes, and inadequate ventilation can also increase indoor pollutant levels.

While air purifiers can help decrease these types of pollutants from the air through filtration and sterilization, unfortunately, a significant amount of pollution also stems from the off-gassing of difficult-to-remove volatile organic compounds. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, recent studies have shown that the most common indoor airborne pollutant is formaldehyde, which is used in building materials such as particle board and hardwood paneling, and permanent adhesives used in carpeting.

In fact, in order to address these issues regarding VOCs, the California Air Resources Board has decided to place caps on the amount of urea formaldehyde found in the above types of household materials. However, at this point, the question is whether these stringent rules will actually help decrease VOC levels from the air we breathe, and the real problem lies in the categorization of household products: some additives in paint and floor finishes may not be categorized as VOCs, but can still vaporize over time and damage the respiratory system.

Interestingly enough, newer homes can often have worse IAQ levels than older ones, as recently built homes are composed of products that are just starting to outgas, and years may even pass before this process is finished. Mary Cordaro, an environmental consultant who specializes in indoor air quality, states, "There are green products with glycols in them, and they may not smell as strong, but they do outgas. They're volatizing more slowly but at high enough rates to still be toxic. It can take six months for some of these glycol chemicals to finally dissipate."

Although companies such as Bioshield and Safecoat are now coming out with products with "green" considerations in mind, the problem of VOC off-gassing is still a problem, and consumers will still have to take matters into their own hands. Industrial air purifiers specifically designed for chemical abatement, such as the Airpura C600, has the ability to eliminate a host of pollutants such as Formaldehyde, Ammonia, and Toulene from the air. Also, green design experts have also recommended the use of houseplants as natural air purifiers. In fact, studies performed at NASA have shown that common indoor landscaping plants such as spider plants and even gerbera daisies can be very effective as part of a system used to provide pollution-free homes and workplaces.