Impact of air fresheners and deodorizers on the indoor total volatile organic compounds

Indoor air quality is a growing health concern because of the increased incidence of the building-related illness, such as sick-building syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity/idiopathic environmental intolerance. In order to effectively reduce the unnecessary chemical exposure in the indoor environment, it would be important to quantitatively compare the emissions from many types of sources. Besides the chemical emissions from the building materials, daily use of household products may contribute at signifi cant levels to the indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, we investigated the emission rate of VOCs and carbonyl compounds for 30 air fresheners and deodorizers by the standard small chamber test method (JIS A 1901). The total VOC (TVOC) emission rates of these household products ranged from the undetectable level (< 20 μg/unit/h) to 6,900 μg/unit/h. The mean TVOC emission rate of the air fresheners for indoor use (16 products) was 1,400 μg/unit/ h and that of the deodorizers for indoor use (6 products) was 58 μg/unit/h, indicating that the fragrances in the products account for the major part of the TVOC emissions. Based on the emission rates, the impacts on the indoor TVOC were estimated by the simple model with a volume of 17.4 m and a ventilation frequency of 0.5 times/h. The mean of the TVOC increment for the indoor air fresheners was 170 μg/m, accounting for 40% of the current provisional target value, 400 μg/m. These results suggest that daily use of household products can signifi cantly infl uence the indoor air quality.