Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) are organic chemicals that may be natural or synthetic and produce vapors. Generally, if you can smell it, it counts as a VOC. VOCs have many uses, including in fuels, solvents, paints, scents, refrigerants, pesticides, and resins. Many VOCs are hazardous air pollutants and regulated. The release of VOC’s into the air is called off-gassing, but you may recognize it more as “new paint or carpet” smell.

The problem is that the release of VOC’s into the indoors of a home causes the concentration of chemicals to be 2-5X that of outdoor air. Depending on the chemical and the concentration, the symptoms could be from watery eyes or mild skin irritations to more serious issues like asthma and the long term effects of VOC exposure could be much more serious. If you’ve heard of Sick Building Syndrome, that’s generally caused by high concentrations of VOCs and a poor ventilation system.

The best way to combat VOC’s is good ventilation and fresh air. The next is to avoid products that off-gas known toxic chemicals, including regular paints, furniture made with foam or fiberboard, synthetic carpet, pesticides, floor finishes, etc. A good rule of thumb is that if it’s made from all-natural materials (wood, wool, natural fibers, etc), the VOCs released are likely to be very low risk.

Learn More: You can find the chemicals in thousands of household products using this website from the US Department of Health & Human Services.