[jagraff]

Interesting, it seems that the actual surface material of walls and/or furniture makes a large difference in how long VOCs stick around, due to differences in surface area at the microscopic scale.

I have a couple HEPA filters in my house that hopefully keep particulate exposure down. Does this mean that I have to run them longer? That I need more of them continuously running to keep exposure to VOCs low?

[whatevertrevor]

As pointed out in another comment HEPA filters don't work well for VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), which are gaseous in nature. They're intended to filter particulate matter.

For VOCs you need activated charcoal/carbon filters usually and replace them from time to time.

[jopsen]

Or a ventilation system I'm guess?

Where I live all new houses are pressure tested and have a ventilation system, replacing all air once every 1-2 hours or something (I think).

[Gigachad]

Every air purifier I’ve seen has both a hepa filter and carbon filter.

[throwway120385]

This kinda makes sense. Water vapor diffuses out through the building materials so why wouldn't VOCs diffuse into those materials?

What you're looking for are not HEPA filters but organic vapor filtering. If you were shopping for a respirator it would be easy but organic vapor extractors I think are a lot more expensive than HEPA filters. I looked in to it when I was doing a couple of oil based coatings for a home renovation project.

[wongarsu]

A lot of air purifiers are advertised as HEPA but really contain a filter stack consisting of a pre-filter, a HEPA filter and an activated carbon filter. Those would presumably help against VOCs, assuming you change the filter frequently enough

[lm28469]

> HEPA filters

They won't do anything against VOCs, you need activated charcoal filters

[hxorr]

If you are in a temperate climate, just make a habit of keeping a couple if windows open through the day

[bflesch]

Thats why ecological buildings use lime and clay for plastering indoor walls. They can absorb a lot of things (water, fumes) and thereby regulate air quality and humidity.

[bahmboo]

The paper posits this is a problem. Large amounts of VOCs are absorbed by these complex structures. Then the structures with the embedded VOCs flake off and are absorbed by breathing, dermal contact and ingestion. Particularly by small children. This is literally their point.

[lxgr]

Do they absorb VOCs forever, though, or do they actually make it harder to vent them out once absorbed by a surface with a large capacity?

[scottlamb]

Does that work if it's painted over? Or can you mix colorants in as with (exterior) stucco? (Maybe this is considered a kind of stucco? I just had to look it up: wikipedia says "The basic composition of stucco is lime, water, and sand".)