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Volatile Organic Compounds: An Overview from Occupational Health Perspective

Vyom Saxena

Abstract


VOCs are emitted as gases by several organic solids or liquids and present a significant occupational health and safety (OHS) challenge due to their deleterious health effects. Though widely present outdoor as well as indoor, the later poses a major health hazard at workplaces where these are extensively used or applied. Analytical chemistry laboratories, Research Laboratories, Bio-Medical workplaces, industrial scale production and application workplaces, especially those dealing with substantial quantities of organic chemicals, have VOCs as important pollutants that may affect the indoor air quality index and pose major OHS risk. Therefore, it is important to make proper quantitative and qualitative assessment of VOCs and adopt proper mitigative strategies after evaluating their concentrations against the standards.


Keywords


Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), occupational health and safety (OHS), Indoor air quality, VOC measurement, VOC mitigation

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.37591/joise.v9i2.6481

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