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Disinfectants and COVID-19

By: Delphine Farmer (@ChemDelphine) and Marina Vance (@marinavance) With growing concerns over Coronavirus, more people are turning to the power of disinfectants to clean surfaces – and that is giving rise to a new set of indoor chemistry. While ordinary soap is surprisingly effective at breaking down the Coronavirus, bleach, alcohol, and ammonia are all […]

Organic compounds in indoor air like to accumulate in paint

By Lucas Algrim, a recent PhD student in Paul Ziemann’s research group at University of Colorado Boulder. A range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be found in the indoor environment. Many VOCs will be ventilated out of the building by the air handling system, but they can also sorb to indoor surfaces, in other […]

Ozone: Friend or Foe?

By Julia Bakker-Arkema and Marina Vance. When we think of “ozone”, many of us think about the hole in the ozone layer, located high up in the stratosphere—about 12 kilometers, or 7 miles above the earth’s surface. It’s much higher than Mount Everest and most types of clouds. The ozone layer is important because […]

What I learned from the 1st ISIAQ webinar on spread of infectious diseases in indoor environments

By Shelly Miller, Professor at University of Colorado Boulder. On Twitter: @ShellyMBoulder ISIAQ, the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate is an international, independent, multidisciplinary, scientific, non-profit organization “whose purpose is to support the creation of healthy, comfortable and productive indoor environments.” The ISIAQ Board of Directors and The Academy of Fellows are hosting […]

What you wear affects what you breathe

By Dusan Licina (EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne,@licinadusan), Glenn Morison (University of North Carolina, @gcmorr), Gabriel Bekö (Denmark Technical University) Charles Weschler (Denmark Technical University and Rutgers University,@CJWeschler) and William Nazaroff (University of California Berkeley) Take a couple of seconds to think about how much time we spend every day wearing […]

Bleach cleaning: indoor emissions, chemistry, and impacts on air quality

By Jimmy Mattila, a graduate student in the Farmer Group at Colorado State University (Twitter: @JimmyMattila) Bleach, an aqueous solution consisting of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and other oxidizers/surfactants, is a commonly used cleaning product in household and workplace environments. The efficacy of bleach stems from its potent antimicrobial and oxidizing properties. Bleach cleaning emits […]

How does flooring type impact your indoor chemistry and indoor microbiology?

This blog post was written by Karen C. Dannemiller, Sarah Haines, and Rachel Adams. Their contact information is at the bottom of this post. Carpets are a favored flooring type. They can be soft, cozy, and warm – and help with keeping noise levels down. Carpet can even help prevent injury. While these attributes are well […]

Total observed organic carbon indoors

Derek found that the total organic carbon concentration was impressively large, three times higher than what you’d find in a typical American city and ten times higher than clean ocean air. He also found that the compounds in the museum were significantly fresher – less oxidized – than those in outdoor air.

An artist who makes clouds. Indoors!

Mr. Smilde’ art is short-lived, just like many oxidants and volatile organic compounds indoors. It can last a few seconds, and then the cloud is gone. He may need to make hundreds of clouds for one photo finish, just like chemists make hundreds (thousands?) of measurements for one manuscript. Indeed, Mr. Smilde’s visual art work resembles a scientific experiment.

IndoorChem