Is New Carpet Toxic

Pretty much anything that has a smell is releasing vocs.

Is new carpet toxic.

Many hundreds of people have felt suddenly ill 1 to 3 days after installing a new carpet in their home or office. Natural options for residential and commercial settings like untreated organic wool and sisal as well as the safest synthetics out there. A pet with no offgassing and the greenest nylon carpet tiles. Within a few days to a few weeks these fumes dissipate and the carpet no longer smells.

The vocs responsible for new carpet smell are 4 phenylcyclohexene 4 pch and to a lesser extent styrene. Journal of nutritional and environmental medicine 1995 5. Toxic emissions from carpets. The fumes are called volatile organic compounds or vocs for short and one of the most notorious carpet vocs is called 4 phenylcyclohexenem aka 4 pc.

The new carpet smell is fumes off gassed released from the carpet. As a new carpet gradually releases or off gasses chemical residue the chemicals enter the air where we can smell them. The healthiest non toxic wall to wall carpets that are either 0 voc or low voc. While carpets are a somewhat safer than they in 1988 there are still toxic problems associated with carpets.

In addition to the toxic exposure from the carpet itself another concern comes from the ability of the carpet to trap and hold airborne household volatile organic compounds vocs as well as lawn care chemicals tracked in from outside. While the new carpet smell might be preferable to the musty smell associated with old and dirty carpets this smell is produced by 4 phenyl cyclohexane 4 pc.