Abstract
Fragranced laundry products emit a range of volatile organic compounds, including hazardous air pollutants. Exposure to fragranced emissions from laundry products has been associated with adverse health effects such as asthma attacks and migraine headaches. Little is known about volatile emissions from clothes dryer vents and the effectiveness of strategies to reduce concentrations and risks. This study investigates volatile emissions from six residential dryer vents, with a focus on d-limonene. It analyses and compares concentrations of d-limonene during use of fragranced and fragrance-free laundry products, as well as changes in switching from fragranced to fragrance-free products. In households using fragranced laundry detergent, the highest concentration of d-limonene from a dryer vent was 118 μg/m3 (mean 33.34 μg/m3). By contrast, in households using only fragrance-free detergent, the highest concentration of d-limonene from a dryer vent was 0.26 μg/m3 (mean 0.25 μg/m3). After households using fragranced detergent switched to using fragrance-free detergent, the concentrations of d-limonene in dryer vent emissions were reduced by up to 99.7% (mean 79.1%). This simple strategy of switching to fragrance-free products significantly and almost completely eliminated d-limonene emissions. Results from this study demonstrate that changing from fragranced to fragrance-free products can be a straightforward and effective approach to reduce ambient air pollution and potential health risks.
Highlights
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a category of air pollutants that typically occur at much higher concentrations indoors (Bari et al 2015; Cheng et al 2016; Goodman et al 2017)
D-limonene in (a) the background laundry room air ranged between 0.24–0.35 μg/m3, (b) the clothes dryer vent after washing new towels without any products ranged between 0.40–0.49 μg/m3, and (c) the clothes dryer vent after washing the same towels with fragrance-free products ranged between 0.24–0.26 μg/m3
At fragranced households 1–4, before switching to fragrance-free products, the concentration of D-limonene in (a) the background laundry room air ranged between 0.23–1.28 μg/m3, (b) the clothes dryer vent after washing new towels without any products ranged between 0.37–1.24 μg/m3, and (c) the clothes dryer vent after washing the same towels with fragranced laundry products ranged between 2.35–118 μg/m3
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a category of air pollutants that typically occur at much higher concentrations indoors (Bari et al 2015; Cheng et al 2016; Goodman et al 2017). Fragranced laundry products emit a range of VOCs such as acetaldehyde, acetone, ethanol, α-pinene, linalool, and D-limonene (Steinemann et al 2013). Some of these VOCs are classified as potentially hazardous and can have adverse effects on human health and the environment (Mendell 2007; Rumchev et al 2004; Spengler et al 2000). Exposure to Dlimonene has been associated with adverse health effects such as skin and eye irritation (NIH 2018) and breathing difficulties such as wheezing or coughing (NICNAS 2018) Terpenes such as D-limonene can react with ozone to generate
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