Occurrence of VOCs before and after renovation of an apartment: a case study

Abstract

Breathing is a natural need of people, but the air that we breathe is not always clean. This also applies to the air in our homes, although, many people think the opposite. Air pollution goes hand-in-hand with the current industrial period. We are more and more surrounded by materials and products on a synthetic basis and even our behaviour (smoking, cooking, etc.) does not help to improve quality of indoor air. This paper deals with the occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), regarding the fact that these compounds are considered to be the most important gaseous pollutants in indoor air. The aim of this study was to determine the current levels and the occurrence of individual VOCs in homes in Slovakia. These substances were measured during renovation works in the selected apartment. An electronic nose based on gas chromatography was used for the analysis of individual VOCs and a photoionization detector with a UV lamp was used for the determination of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) concentration. The results have shown that applied paints were the major sources of VOCs in the indoor air. The biggest increase of TVOC concentrations was observed after application of synthetic paint.