{"id":374,"date":"2009-04-30T15:07:06","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T15:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/04\/indoor-air-quality-whats-a-voc.html"},"modified":"2009-04-30T15:07:06","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T15:07:06","slug":"indoor-air-quality-whats-a-voc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/04\/indoor-air-quality-whats-a-voc.html","title":{"rendered":"Indoor Air Quality: What’s a VOC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sky.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>My husband and I are preparing for a kitchen renovation, and we are eagerly in search of materials that won’t hurt the planet or our health in order to give us a beautiful cooking and eating space.  For countertops, cabinets, and floors, that means minimizing our exposure to VOCs, often referred to as “offgassing.”<\/p>\n

Eco-friendly design literature talks about VOCs much like how eco-cosmetics experts talk about parabens–it’s a ubiquitous concern.  For kitchens, the best materials (like IceStone<\/a> countertops – recycled glass suspended in a concrete matrix….in yummy colors!) don’t emit any at all.<\/p>\n

But what are VOCs, anyway, and why should we be worried about them?  First, VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound, so let’s break that down:<\/p>\n

Volatile<\/b>: meaning a substance that vaporaizes or evaporates into the atmosphere under normal conditions.<\/p>\n

Organic<\/b>: meaning any chemical that contains carbon.<\/p>\n

Compound<\/b>: meaning a substance formed by the combination of two or more distinct chemicals.<\/p>\n

So why are VOCs bad for indoor air quality and general health?  Click here for the EPA’s literature on VOCs.<\/a>  But if you’d rather have me translate:<\/p>\n

The most common VOC is methane<\/a>, which we know is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.  For the kitchen, though, the chief area of VOC concern is in the wood preservatives (chiefly formaldehyde) that are found in many wood floors and cabinets (not to mention cleaning solvents, but that’s a post-design conversation….). When the VOCs vaporize into the atmosphere, they get into our bodies through our nose and mouth. And that can lead to asthmatic or allergic symptoms, as well as headaches and general immune system supression.<\/p>\n

Other things that can emit VOCs in your home:<\/p>\n

–some office equipment, including laser printers
–cigarette smoke (emits benzene, a known carcinogen. But you knew that, right?)
–carpets
–paints
–insulation  <\/p>\n

So what’s to be done?  Two things, really: ventilate your home to give those gasses somewhere to go other than your lungs, and choose low- or no-VOC materials whenever possible.  Here are some to get you started:<\/p>\n

FreshAire Paint<\/a><\/p>\n

Flor Carpet<\/a><\/p>\n

IceStone Counters<\/a><\/p>\n

GreenHome Guide’s Cabinet Page<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you know about VOCs?  What choices have you made to minimize them in your home?<\/p>\n

<\/b>(image via: http:\/\/www.idigitalemotion.com\/tutorials\/guest\/stellar\/sky.jpg<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I are preparing for a kitchen renovation, and we are eagerly in search of materials that won’t hurt the planet or our health in order to give us a beautiful cooking and eating space.  For countertops, cabinets, and floors, that means minimizing our exposure to VOCs, often referred to as “offgassing.” Eco-friendly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,27,28],"tags":[41,453,122],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-eco","category-health","tag-health-2","tag-indoor-air-quality","tag-vocs"],"yoast_head":"\nIndoor Air Quality: What's a VOC? - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/04\/indoor-air-quality-whats-a-voc.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indoor Air Quality: What's a VOC? 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A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}