Some of those VOCs can react with ozone, a reactive gas, to produce chemical irritants inside the home.The level of chemical irritants is low but might be a possible concern for individuals who are sensitive to them.Every vacation season, Americans purchase nearly 30 million live Christmas trees. We wanted to check out which chemicals are released and how much, and to put that into the context of other sources of chemicals in a home,” he said.To answer these questions, Poppendieck and his NIST coworkers took a common type of Christmas tree– a Douglas fir– and sealed it inside a chamber. They also investigated whether the VOCs reacted with other components of indoor air to create new compounds.The teams findings have been published in the journal Indoor Environments.NIST researchers positioned a common type of Christmas tree in a sealed chamber for 17 days to keep track of and measure the chemicals it gives off.
Credit: SciTechDaily.comLive Christmas trees launch chemicals called unstable natural substances (VOCs). Some of those VOCs can respond with ozone, a reactive gas, to produce chemical irritants inside the home.The level of chemical irritants is low however may be a possible issue for individuals who are delicate to them.Every vacation season, Americans buy nearly 30 million live Christmas trees. We wanted to explore which chemicals are emitted and how much, and to put that into the context of other sources of chemicals in a house,” he said.To answer these questions, Poppendieck and his NIST coworkers took a common type of Christmas tree– a Douglas fir– and sealed it inside a chamber. They likewise examined whether the VOCs responded with other elements of indoor air to create brand-new compounds.The teams findings have actually been released in the journal Indoor Environments.NIST researchers positioned a typical type of Christmas tree in a sealed chamber for 17 days to keep an eye on and determine the chemicals it releases. They brought in outside air at a rate normal for families, and continuously measured chemicals in the indoor air.Monoterpenes were the most abundant VOC emitted from the tree.
