The menace of volatile organic compounds

When we think of lean air most us think of only the fresh air from the forest, tress and the cool wind that blows.Many people think quality is the one that we experience in the outside or outdoor.And when we talk about bad air our minds quickly takes us to the smog from factories, fumes from cars and the smoke from the burning of waste materials. We think more about outdoor air quality most of the time but in reality we only spend a little time outdoor activities .We as humans spend about 80% of our time in indoors hence the quality of indoor air should be seen as a priority .we cannot talk about indoor air quality without mentioning volatile organic compounds. So i will talk you on a ride to discover the effects volatile organic compounds on indoor air quality and the effects it has on our lives

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Volatile organic compounds are substances that become gases at room temperatures .Many of this volatile organic compounds are used in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, everyday products like air fresheners ,paint and refrigerants .This volatile organic compounds comes from natural sources and from other anthropogenic activities. The respiration of plants and animals ,the organic decomposition of some organic matters in the environment contribute to the release of VOCs into the atmosphere and man made activities like extraction of petroleum and natural gas and the burning of fossil fuels are the major release VOCs into the atmosphere as this contribute to about 25% of the total volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere.

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Products like Paint and plywoods contain volatile organic compounds in it . when this product are used in a room ,for instance wben a room is painted or when plywood wood is put in the room that is unventilated. This products releases volatile organic compounds into the room atmosphere and when an individual get exposed to through any of the the exposure routes.such as inhaling the gas can cause a lot of health implications .The person will experience memory loss ,nausea ,Dizziness and it damage the kidney, liver and the central nervous system in the body.The volatile organic compounds is even suspected to cause cancer in the human body this show how serious the effect of VOCs has on our body

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Most of the products like hairspray, air fresheners, deodorant and many others which we use in our daily lives contain volatile organic compounds as its constituents or VOCs used in its production.
.So care should be taken in their use to help prevent the negative effects it will have on our health.

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