[Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from furniture and electrical appliances].

Abstract

Organic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Therefore, furniture and other household products as well as building products may influence the indoor air quality. This study was performed to estimate quantitatively influence of household products on indoor air quality. Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions were investigated for 10 products including furniture (chest, desk, dining table, sofa, cupboard) and electrical appliances (refrigerator, electric heater, desktop personal computer, liquid crystal display television and audio) by the large chamber test method (JIS A 1912) under the standard conditions of 28 degrees C, 50% relative humidity and 0.5 times/h ventilation. Emission rate of total VOC (TVOC) from the sofa showed the highest; over 7900 microg toluene-equivalent/unit/h. Relatively high TVOC emissions were observed also from desk and chest. Based on the emission rates, the impacts on the indoor TVOC were estimated by the simple model with a volume of 17.4 m3 and ventilation frequency of 0.5 times/h. The estimated TVOC increment for the sofa was 911 microg/m3, accounting for almost 230% of the provisional target value, 400 microg/m3. The values of estimated increment of toluene emitted from cupboard and styrene emitted from refrigerator were 10% and 16% of guideline values, respectively. These results revealed that VOC emissions from household products may influence significantly indoor air quality.