TL;DR: VOC emissions can significantly impact workplace safety, indoor air quality, and employee health across both industrial and office environments. This blog explains where VOCs come from, the risks they pose, and how employers can reduce exposure through monitoring and effective ventilation solutions.
- Learn what VOC emissions are and review common examples such as formaldehyde, styrene, toluene, xylene, ethanol, and methylene chloride.
- Discover which industries are most likely to generate VOC emissions, including petroleum refining, chemical manufacturing, printing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and commercial laundering.
- Explore common workplace sources of VOCs, from building materials and cleaning products to office equipment and industrial supplies.
- Understand the short- and long-term health effects of VOC exposure, including respiratory issues, headaches, fatigue, organ damage, infertility, and certain cancers.
- Find out how VOC levels are measured and which industrial ventilation, fume extraction, and air cleaning systems can help maintain OSHA compliance and protect employee wellbeing.
When it comes to workplace safety standards, ensuring a consistently healthy, low-impact, and safe environment for all employees is not just tantamount but legally required. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), for example, offers insights and VOC emission standards about indoor air quality that spans from general guidance to stipulations set forth by states like New Jersey and California. When taken in aggregate, the picture becomes clear: it is an employer’s responsibility to ensure clean and safe breathable air, proper ventilation, and a toxin-free environment in which employees regularly gather.
Unfortunately, one hurdle in the fight against clean air are volatile organic compounds, or VOCs for short. In a scientific sense, VOCs are chemically derived compounds that carry a high vapor pressure and a low water solubility. However, in layman’s terms, they are chemical emissions that can have severe short-term and long-term health effects.
In this article, we will outline some of the various ways VOC emissions can have a negative impact on workplace safety, air quality, and the wellbeing of your employees. We will also help you learn how to reduce VOC emissions in your industrial setting.
What are examples of some VOC emissions?
VOCs can be seen across a spectrum of chemical properties. Some of the more common ones found in commercial and industrial settings include:
- Formaldehyde
- Styrene
- Toulene
- Xylene
- Ethanol
- Terpene
- Methelyne Chloride
- Butanal
Which industries produce VOC emissions?
As you might expect, VOC emissions are commonly found occurring in industries that involve a high degree of chemical use or processing. Some of the top industries that carry a high degree of VOC emissions include:
- Petroleum refining
- Printing
- Chemical manufacturing
- Pharmaceutical development
- Electronics manufacturing
- Dry cleaning and commercial laundering
- And more
However, it’s worth noting that an industry does not need to be industrial in nature to experience workplace VOC emissions. And this stems from the origin of VOCs itself.
Where do VOC air emissions come from?
As an emission from a chemical compound, indoor VOC air emissions can be found in a wide variety of settings beyond industrial ones. Today, sources of VOCs can be found in workplaces due in part to:
- Building materials and furnishings
- Cleaning products and maintenance materials
- Certain paints and varnishes
- Ozone- and chemical-emitting office equipment and consumer products
- Industrial supplies
- And more
As one might imagine, in an unventilated setting, VOCs can be measured everywhere from a manufacturing assembly line to a white collar cubicle maze. VOCs are simply a part of our modern industrial life. However, with proper ventilation and reduction, VOCs do not need to be a persistent health risk for your employees.
How do VOCs affect worker health?
Continued VOC exposure can have serious medical implications for anyone of any age. For workers who are regularly exposed to a range of potential and unventilated VOCs, this exposure can present symptoms such as:
- Irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat,
- Neurological effects such as headaches, nausea, and dizziness,
- Respiratory distress, including coughing and shortness of breath,
- Fatigue,
- And more.
Longer term, employees exposed to carcinogenic VOCs may expect:
- Organ damage, with a discrete focus on the nervous system, liver, and kidneys,
- Contact dermatitis,
- Development of cancer, such as leukemia,
- Infertility issues,
- And more.
As you might imagine, any of these symptoms can hinder both an employee’s productivity and overall wellbeing. And any, if through the fault of the employer to not provide adequate PPE and ventilation, can be the source of a serious litigious issue.
How are VOC levels measured in workplaces?
Employers can rely on a variety of testing procedures to regularly monitor VOC levels in the workplace to meet VOC emission standards. This includes:
- Photoionization detectors
- Active air sampling
- And others
Of course, proper ventilation is and should always be an employer’s first and most important step in how to reduce VOC emissions.
What VOC emission control systems reduce VOC exposure?
Some of the best means for proper industrial ventilation come from systems specifically designed to reduce VOC exposure. For businesses that operate in high VOC-producing conditions or for those that reside in a setting that is prone to VOC conglomeration, industrial fume technologies can offer targeted, immediate, and employee-safe solutions designed to keep noxious air moving up and out of your employees’ workspaces.
Here, everything from portable and wall-mounted fume extractors to ambient air cleaners and wet dust collectors form a protective system designed to ensure the air your employees breathe is clean and safe at all hours of the workday, regardless of your output. These VOC emission control systems can, when paired with safe manufacturing processes, make for a safer environment for employees, regardless of their industry.
As a global leader in air pollution solutions, we at Diversitech offer a range of industrial-grade air cleaning solutions that are designed to consistently and efficiently clean your industrial setting’s air. Businesses from manufacturing and laundering to automotives and fuel refining will find our products offer peace of mind, OSHA compliance, and better employee productivity, all in affordable and simple to install forms.
Ensure quality, breathable air for all your employees with help from Diversitech. Discover our most popular products today.