Diffusing VOCs

What is better than filling your home or office with a scent that is either calming or invigorating? Whatever mood or atmosphere we wish to be curated, we have our trusty diffusers to set the tone as desired. That feeling of all our stressors and anxieties melting away and shifting mood and thoughts can actually be priceless.

As great as this all is, the unfortunate reality is that our efforts towards improvement of wellbeing in the form of essential oils and diffusers, if not under the right air quality circumstances, can be just as harmful as it is purported to be helpful.

The vaporizing of scents definitively contributes to levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a group of carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporate into the air at room temperature) in our indoor environment, in addition to other human activities like wearing perfumes and using disinfectants that are VOC producing.

Built up tVOCs in the home could impact human health and cause symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, lethargy, etc. It could be that repeated visits to the doctor may not reveal the possibility of poor indoor air quality as contributing to ailments.

Indeed, going scent free is completely from left field for many of us who can’t live without our (mental) health improvement, self-care measures. The only way one can enjoy releasing VOCs indoors without worry is to ensure that ventilation in your home is already at optimum where the added VOCs won’t further exacerbate an already present issue.

The key is to monitor and adjust use as you go along, in order to preserve the well-intentioned activities to improve health.

Stay on top of your indoor air quality!