Recent studies have indicated that most people spend at-least 80% of their time indoors and that the air quality in many buildings can be considerably more polluted than air in outdoor locations. During this time, people are constantly being exposed to significant levels of VOCs, and are as a result at risk to disease and illness.
VOCs are found in a vast range of products used regularly by people in their day-to-day lives, including: paints, curtains, drapes, glues, adhesives, markers, cleaning products, nail polish, building materials and so on. In fact, it is probably easier to compile a list of human-made products that don’t contain VOCs! They can affect health as a result of the high-levels of toxins within them. For instance: many paints contain considerable quantities of the carcinogen – benzene, which in extreme cases can lead to cancer. Exposure to these types of toxins is classified as acute or chronic. Acute exposure is generally measured in hours and can cause symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, tiredness and the onset of asthma-like symptoms. Chronic exposure is based upon exposure to small amounts of a toxin over a longer period of time and can often result in serious illnesses such as liver-damage and the collapse of the nervous system.
People have different sensitivities and resistance-thresholds to VOCs and reaction to exposure is not uniform. However, whilst they can have a damaging effect on wellness, their potency can be reduced by the use of devices such as air-purifiers that help to create air that is free of large levels of toxins.