Climate Change and Building Material Chemical Emissions

Abstract Description: Given that individuals spend much of their time indoors, examining indoor air quality and its connection to adverse outdoor climate events is crucial for human health. With rising global temperatures and heatwaves becoming more frequent, indoor chemical emissions from building materials, furnishings, and consumer products can become significant. Indoor building materials present a high-surface area to indoor environments and are understudied potential chemical emission sources that could impact indoor air quality. The question of building materials’ resilience becomes more crucial when they are subjected to moderate temperature elevation such as is already occurring in regions that historically do not have air conditioning or in places where vulnerable populations may be subject to suboptimal building systems. Previous studies that investigated a limited scope of materials under extreme temperature conditions have shown increased emissions of a narrow list of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde, toluene, and benzene. However, the current work hopes to address this data gap by measuring the effect of a more realistic, moderate temperature rise on a wider range of materials. Eighteen commonly used building materials such as engineered hardwood, nylon carpet, and acoustic tile were investigated at room (26°C) and moderately elevated (35°C) temperatures. Volatile chemical emissions were collected from micro-chamber exhaust using Tenax and DNPH sorbent tubes that were analyzed by thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. More than 75% of the materials showed increased emissions at the higher temperature, and emitted chemicals of concern included formaldehyde and several respiratory, reproductive, and digestive toxicants and irritants. Not only did the chemical emissions intensify but the number of unique VOCs increased, by a factor of 2, at moderately elevated temperature. Additionally, product designations like “low-VOC” were not necessarily reflected in the results, and a significant portion of the materials’ emissions profiles were cost-agnostic, meaning that low-emitting materials were not always the priciest option. Preliminary analysis of the methodology itself has also shown that the microchamber setup used in the research agrees well with traditional chamber testing, which is the gold standard for industry product declarations. This research highlights the need to reevaluate third-party certification testing with respect to temperature variation, especially given the greater likelihood of higher-temperature climate events occurring in the near future.