New Carpet Odor Toxic
Although new carpet does produce this volatile organic compound emissions from carpet as measured during epa studies ranked among the lowest overall.
New carpet odor toxic. First go with a carpet that has a carpet and rug institute green label and green label plus tags on it. 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. Now that you should have a general sense of all the chemicals that might off gas from your new carpet let s take a look at non toxic alternatives instead. Getting rid of that new carpet smell.
Short of removing toxic carpeting and replacing it with a healthier alternative there is a way to significantly minimize the toxic off gassing of new carpet with minimal investment. This effective 3 step process really works to seal out toxins and lessen exposure to harmful chemicals in carpeting. You can smell 4 pc down to about 5 ppb. The adhesive used to affix the carpet to the floor typically contains benzene and toluene some of the most harmful vocs.
I encourage you visit the carpet and rug institute cri first before you do anything. How to minimize all these toxic fumes. Within a few days to a few weeks these fumes dissipate and the carpet no longer smells. There are many different types of vocs but the one related to new carpet odor is 4 phenylcyclohexene 4 pch a by product of the synthetic latex binders used to hold the carpet backing together.
When it comes to getting rid of new carpet smell there are many ways in which people will try to expel the toxic smell from their personal indoor environment including opening windows adding fans to the affected room using baking soda on the surface or even applying vinegar to the carpeting in an attempt to neutralize the odors. The popular new carpet smell is familiar to anyone that has had new standard carpet installed. 3 steps to remove new carpet odor. This is the chemical that creates new car pet smell four days after installation levels fall to about 10 ppb and after about two months levels decrease to approximately 1 to 2 ppb.
Levels of 4 pc to 20 parts per billion ppb have been mea sured in new carpet. So as the new carpet gradually releases or off gasses the chemicals they enter the air where we can smell them. Pretty much anything that has a smell is releasing vocs. The thing with vocs is they aren t unique to carpet.
The vocs responsible for new carpet smell are 4 phenylcyclohexene 4 pch and to a lesser extent styrene. These are highly recommended as they off gas low emission chemicals. 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. As a new carpet gradually releases or off gasses chemical residue the chemicals enter the air where we can smell them.
The smell can be stuck in memory for decades to come and the health effects may stick around as well.