Airway irritation of VOC mixtures based on the emissions of the finishing materials - PVC floorings and paints.

VOC emissions from building materials are assumed to cause irritation of eye and the upper airways (sensory irritation, SI) in the indoor environment. Four finishing products, two PVC floorings and paints, were selected to this study: PVC(+) and Paint(+) were accepted whereas PVC(-) and Paint(-) were not acceptable in the human sensory evaluation. SI potency of VOC mixtures representing the material emissions were tested by the mouse bioassay (ASTM E981-84 ). Both the paint mixtures were much poorer irritants than PVC(-), but stronger than PVC(+). In the PVC floorings, the mouse bioassay and the human sensory evaluation ended up the same rank order for the two materials. On the contrary, the Paint(+) mixture of the paint accepted in the human evaluation proved to be a more potent irritant than the Paint(-) mixture. Overall, formaldehyde was the main reason for SI responses caused by the mixtures