New Carpet Fumes Toxic
The new carpet smell is fumes off gassed released from the carpet.
New carpet fumes toxic. This volatility makes it easy for us to smell. Mark goldman manager of anderson labs reports that autopsies on mice exposed to carpet fumes using the astm e981 method have shown a variety of lesions including brain and liver lesions as well as kidney degeneration. The new carpet odor is the 4 pc off gassing which can cause eye and respiratory tract irritation and may also affect the central nervous system. You can get rid of the smell through ventilating your home or using things like baking soda to avoid the odor.
As an example think of bleach and ammonia. Naphthalene is also suspected of causing cancer in humans. The fumes are called volatile organic compounds or vocs for short and one of the most notorious carpet vocs is called 4 phenylcyclohexenem aka 4 pc. The vocs responsible for new carpet smell are 4 phenylcyclohexene 4 pch and to a lesser extent styrene.
Other compounds that affect your health are adhesives flame retardants and stain protectors. This vast group of chemicals include many that are frequently used in the manufacturing of household products like paint vinyl flooring wall coverings floor finishes etc. As a new carpet gradually releases or off gasses chemical residue the chemicals enter the air where we can smell them. Pretty much anything that has a smell is releasing vocs.
4 pc is used in the latex backing of 95 of us carpets. In addition when chemicals mix they may produce other toxic fumes that could be harmful to health. Volatile in this case means that they evaporate at room temperature. The odor of the new carpeting is caused by chemicals known as volatile organic compounds or vocs.
This is known as the chemical cocktail effect. The thing with vocs is they aren t unique to carpet. The adhesive used to affix the carpet to the floor typically contains benzene and toluene some of the most harmful vocs. Please refer to this article.
Much of the new carpet odor has to do with the adhesives used to secure the carpet into position as well as the chemicals used to treat the product prior to the installation. Volatile simply means it evaporates readily at normal temperatures. Within a few days to a few weeks these fumes dissipate and the carpet no longer smells. The unmistakable odor produced by new carpet is caused by a volatile organic compound or voc.