Indoor furniture

For many years, nitrocellulose coating systems were preferred for indoor furniture and other wood parts. These systems are still used on low-price furniture, but are... 

Fig. 6.7 Images of indoor furniture composed of POCs a office chair, b cupboard, and c office...

Some other important markets for plastics include (not in any order of importance) artificial leather, shoe soles, gloves, tarpaulins, flexible hose and tubing, sports goods, laboratory equipment, wallcoverings, indoor furniture, garden fmniture, horticultural implements, household appliances, marine applications, trains and toys. Shoe soles alone require about seven million tonnes of plastics and rubber each year. 

The wood fibres used in plastics are not often post-consumer material but they may be waste from sawmills. Over 330,000 tonnes of wood flour was used in resin-based composites in North America in 2003. The Emopean figure is only about 10% of the North American one but consumption can be expected to increase, with new applications in outdoor and indoor furniture, vehicles, decking, construction and infrastructure. European manufacturers of wood filled plastics include Fasalex, Tech-Wood, Haller Formholz, Knotwood, Timbaplus and Ecodek. 

Fig. 23-1. Representation of home with various sources and sinks for indoor air pollutants (A), exchange (B), indoor concentration (C), outgassing of building and furniture materials (D), irvfiltration from soils (E), removal on interior surfaces.

Acceptable indoor air quality (lAQ) is defined as air in which there are no known contaminants at harmful concentrations as determined by cognizant authorities and with which a substantial majority (80%) of the people exposed do not express dissatisfaction (ASHRAE, 1989). Some of these indoor air contaminants are particulates, vapors, and gases that may be generated by occupants and their activities, building materials, furniture, equipment and appliances present in indoor space, operations and main-... 

The main use of propylene is for polymerization to polypropylene, a process similar to the manufacture of high-density polyethylene (i.e., a low-pressure, catalytic process). Textile hhers made from polypropylene are relatively low-cost and have particularly good properties, such as high resistance to abrasion and soiling for use in furniture upholstery and indoor/outdoor carpeting. 

Formaldehyde is a harmful compound released from walls and furnitures in new houses because adhesives containing HCHO are often used in constmction materials. In addition, H CHO is emitted by tobacco smoke and combustion exhaust gases. Long exposure to HCHO causes serious health problems called sick house diseases. In Japan, the concentration of HCHO in indoor air is regulated [54] to under 0.08 ppm based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Pentachlorophenol concentrations in urine and serum can be used as biomarkers of internal dose (Colosio et al., 1993a). PCP concentrations up to about 30 mg/L were detected in urine samples of exposed workers, while concentrations lower than 0.3 mg/L were detected in the general population. The presence of PCP in biological samples of the general population is attributable to indoor exposure to the compound released from treated materials (furniture, leather, paints, etc.). 

Indoor radon in most houses come primarily from soil gas infiltrating into the house because of pressure-driven flow. The radon decays into a series of decay products to which most of the health effects are attributed. These decay products begin attached to ultrafine particles that either plateout on surfaces such as walls, furniture, etc., or become attached to larger particles that are present in the indoor air. The nature of those particles depends on the kinds of sources that exist in the house such as smokers, gas stoves, etc. 

The extensive use of phthalates as plasticizers in various materials (furniture, plastics, electronics equipment, textiles, etc.) has led to the widespread and substantial contamination of the indoor environment, e.g., air and dust [3, 96, 97]. Indoor environment and dietary intake are of special concern for the increasing... 

Because of volatilization and leaching from their application in consumer and personal care products, phthalate esters are ubiquitous contaminants in indoor environment, and the levels found in dust from homes in different countries (Table 2), showed that the less volatile phthalates such as DEHP and BBP, are the predominant in dust samples [11,16, 74], and that the percentage of both carpet and plastic materials (furniture, decoration, and home electronics) could be associated with higher concentrations of BBP and DEHP in house dust [12, 74, 75]. The proportion of DiNP in house dust from Germany in 2009 [12], indicates that the... 

Currie et al. (1990) evaluated the concentrations of diazinon in indoor air and on working surfaces for a period of 10 days after application in commercial offices. The highest concentrations of diazinon (163 and 158 pg/m3) were measured 4 hours postapplication in two empty offices, while the concentration in the furnished office was 27 pg/m3. One day postapplication, levels were 125 and 70 pg/m3 in the two empty offices and 27 pg/m3 in the furnished office. Air concentrations of diazinon continued to decline and on day 6 postapplication were approximately 35 pg/m3 in the empty offices and 8 pg/m3 in the furnished office. Airborne levels of diazinon were distinctly lower in the furnished office, and this was attributed to obstruction of the applicator s spraying path by office furniture so that a lower amount of diazinon was applied. Diazinon deposition on aluminum plates was measured as an indicator of surface contamination, measurements ranged from 0.4-15 ng/cm2. No overall decrease in surface contamination occurred over time. Plates suspended 1.5-2.1 m above the floor generally exhibited higher diazinon levels 24 hours... 

The use of building materials, furniture, carpets and household products produces an almost ubiquitous level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air. Several hundred different compounds have been identified in the indoor environment. Since most air pollutants occur in low concentrations of 1-1000 rg/m3, highly sensitive detection methods as well as efficient separation methods are needed to analyze air samples (Barro et al., 2009). 

All kinds of building materials, furniture, textiles, computers etc. are potential sources of SVOCs/POMs and estimation of the total content in the material may be required. One reason to estimate the total or initial content is that it is an important parameter in physical based emission models for example, for phthalate emission from vinyl flooring (Clausen et al, 2007). The materials can be purchased as new, or sampled from the indoor environment under investigation. The materials should be stored in a way that preserves their content of SVOCs/POMs and prevents contamination and degradation of the materials and their content of SVOCs/POMs. The content of SVOCs/POMs in the sampled materials can be estimated by extraction (see Section 2.5.1). 

Salthammer, T. (1997) Emission of volatile organic compounds from furniture coatings. Indoor Air, 7,189-97. 

Salthammer, T. (1999a) Indoor air pollution by release of VOCs from wood-based furniture, in Organic Indoor Air Pollutants (ed. T. Salthammer), Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim, Germany, pp. 203-18. 

A great deal of chemical transformation takes place before consumers receive their furniture, flooring, and other indoor building materials. Polymerization of glues, coatings and plashes, or heat processing of manufactured wood products, generates volatile by-products that can continue to be emitted from the material after it has been installed. Once installed, further transformations increase the load of odorous or toxic gas-phase species (Uhde and Salthammer, 2007). Reactions discussed here include oxidation and hydrolysis. 

In the indoor environment, many types of products such as crystals, sprays and liquids are applied for active and preventative protection of insects. Insect sprays are particularly popular because they are easy to handle and can be combined with air fresheners. Commonly, the amount of active agents in these products is well below 2%. For example, a commercially available insecticide for indoor use may contain 0.25% tetramethrin, 0.05% D-phenothrin and 1% of the synergist pipero-nyl butoxide. Pyrethroids are also used as active agents in liquid products against furniture beetle. In addition, materials containing natural fibers are often equipped with synthetic pyrethroids as a precaution. Apart from the active ingredients, volatile components such as acetone, aliphatic hydrocarbons, cycloalkanes, branched alkanes C3-benzenes and dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether are usually present in insecticides. 

Indoor household dust samples gathered by a vacuum cleaner from rooms with furniture treated with a wood-preserving formulation were analyzed for CDDs (Christmann et al. 1989b). The wood-preserving... 

PP monofilaments have found broad application in cordage and fishing nets (which float), and if highly stabilized they are woven into fabrics used for outdoor furniture, tarpaulins, and similar applications. Large filament denier staple is used widely in indoor-outdoor carpets. Also, staple fibers have found major applications in tufted indoor carpets and nonwovens used for diaper, filtration, and civil engineering fabrics. 

If wet wipes are used, care must be exercised to avoid damaging the surfaces being monitored. Solvents other than water may remove substances (e.g. furniture and floor waxes) from the surface that can cause analytical interferences. In addition, if the solvent is capable of extracting the pesticide residue from beneath the surface being wiped, the residue recovered may overestimate the amount of dislodgeable residue. Special care should be taken when using flanunable solvents indoors. Toxic solvents should never be used in occupied buildings. While 2-propanol and ethanol are relatively safe for use in occupied indoor... 

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