Indoor air chemistry: Terpene reaction products and airway effects

Indoor Air Chemistry: Cleaning Agents, Ozone and Toxic Air Contaminants

Impact of reaction products from building materials and furnishings on indoor air quality—A review of recent advances in indoor chemistry

The variety of chemical substances present in modern building products, household products and furnishings provides potential for chemical reactions in the material (case 1), on the material surface (case 2) and in the gas phase (case 3). Such ‘‘indoor chemistry’’ is known as one of the main reasons for primary and secondary emissions. The conditions of production often cause unwanted side reac...

Terpene/ozone Reaction Products (tops). Dependence of Irritation on Reaction Time and Relative Humidity

Earlier, we reported the formation of unidentified strong irritants in reaction mixtures of terpenes and ozone. The identified products included aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids. Here we report the effects of relative humidity and reaction time on irritant formation in our flow reaction system using limonene and isoprene. Upper airway irritation was measured in mice (via reduction of res...

Health Effects of a Mixture of Indoor Air Volatile Organics, Their Ozone Oxidation Products, and Stress

In our present study we tested the health effects among women of controlled exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with and without ozone (O3), and psychological stress. Each subject was exposed to the following three conditions at 1-week intervals (within-subject factor): VOCs (26 mg/m3), VOCs + O3 (26 mg/m3 + 40 ppb), and ambient air with a 1-min spike of VOCs (2.5 mg/m3). As a betwe...

INDOOR AIR QUALITY: Scented Products Emit a Bouquet of VOCs

Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to analyze VOCs given off by the products. They tested 25 air fresheners, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, disinfectants, dish detergents, all-purpose cleaners, soaps, hand sanitizers, lotions...