The presence of harmful substances, including volatile organic compounds - VOCs - in indoor air can lead to many health problems or exacerbate already existing ones. Do you have smokers around your home or business? Do you worry about passive smoke and its effects on your health? With recreational cannabis use being legal in Santa Ana and Orange County in general, you can expect to have some VOCs in your home.
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We cover the entire Santa Ana / Anaheim region for VOC Testing including Irvine, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Orange, Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo, Westminster and Newport Beach.
It's easy to overlook them until you notice that acrid smell – it may leave your home or business building with time, but it may not. You need to be proactive and know if you'll need to leave the environment for a while or if the levels of compounds in your indoor air are safe for you. The best way to get accurate VOC levels of your indoor air is by employing the services of a professional indoor quality testing firm.
We're happy to help you out with your VOC Testing needs, but keep in mind, we also undertake Indoor Air Quality Testing and Mold Testing in Orange County and the surrounding areas.
In this article, you'll understand the importance of VOC Testing in Santa Ana and other cities in the Orange County region. You'll also get to know where to get reliable and unbiased indoor air quality testing if you're in Orange County.
What are VOCs and How Do They Come About?
VOCs, volatile organic compounds, are organic chemicals that are present in the air, indoor or outdoor, due to their low boiling point and high vapor pressure at room temperature. They'll readily vaporize if they are subjected to higher temperatures, and they're commonly released from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels.
When you burn organic materials, such as trees and grasses, they give off some compounds, while the prevalent temperature at which these organic materials are burning is sufficient to vaporize some chemical compounds, others need higher temperatures to liberate them. In smoke, the smell you perceive is from some VOCs that have not combusted completely.
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These days, everyone seems to want organic substances, but they don't know these organic substances come with their disadvantages too. In California, the use of cannabis has increased as it is legal. Some growers prefer to cultivate their cannabis indoors, to increase their potential yield. However, they expose themselves and subsequent inhabitants of that house to mold and other volatile organic compounds.
You'll commonly find VOCs in smokes, perfumes, aerosols, and the like. Some of them are detrimental to human health, and they can cause a worsening in an already bad health state.
Effects of VOCs on Your Health
Volatile organic compounds are usually higher indoors than outdoors, and since you spend most of your time indoors - in your home or office buildings, you may be exposed to more VOCs than you realize. Prolonged exposure to volatile organic compounds has the following health repercussions.
Respiratory Issues
As is common with airborne chemicals, VOCs can disrupt your respiratory state of normalcy. When you inhale smoke, it causes your throat to itch and burn. Sometimes, it affects your eyes, but that's only a short-term exposure symptom.
When you're exposed to VOCs for a long time, for several months for example, you run the risk of developing respiratory issues such as short breath. For people who already have issues with their respiration, such as asthma, VOCs make the symptoms much worse.
Irritation
The most common reaction to VOCs appears to be allergic, but they're accompanied by irritation of different organs of your body, such as your eyes, nose, and throat. You may even develop headaches from being exposed to VOCs.
If everyone in your home seems to be developing conjunctivitis, starts coughing, have an itchy and sore throat, the culprit may the VOCs that are off gassing from your furniture.
Defective Immune System in Infants
Air pollutants generally cause a defect in the immune system of infants. However, volatile organic compounds can accelerate these symptoms. A defective immune system in Infants makes them vulnerable to a myriad of infections and diseases that they may come in contact with.
The scariest part is that you may not realize your home has high levels of VOCs until it's too late for your infant.
Why You Should Test Your Indoor Air for VOCs and Mold
The importance of testing your indoor air and noting the constituents is extremely important - knowing the pollutants in the air cannot be overemphasized. This knowledge is the first step to solving to problem: this is one of the main reasons you should test your indoor air for VOCs and mold.
How to Know if your Indoor Air is Healthy
The constituents of your indoor air are an important determinant of your health. You can inhale, ingest, and absorb volatile organic compounds that are in your home’s air. Since they cause health issues, the more you absorb them, the more you're likely to develop health issues.
VOC testing helps you to know if you have more than the tolerable limit of VOCs you should have. It'll also inform your next course of action.
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Healthier Indoor Air Quality
Knowing the quality of your indoor air, you're left to act accordingly. If you have higher than tolerable VOCs in your indoor air, you should contact the appropriate remediation company to clean up your indoor air. After their services, you'll have better indoor air quality than you previously had, although it may take a while.
Improved Overall Health
The goal of testing your indoor air quality is to ascertain the suitability of the air for your health. However, it also opens the possibility of improving your health by exposing the elements of your indoor air. For example, if you have mold spores and smoke from cannabis or some other combustion in the air, it negatively affects your health. However, when VOC testing exposes them and you act accordingly, your overall health improves as your indoor air quality improves.
How to Get Reliable VOC and Mold Testing in Santa Ana
VOC testing in Santa Ana, Orange County is available but many service providers provide biased VOC testing results because they're affiliated with some mold remediation companies. However, you can get reliable and objective VOC and Mold Testing in Santa Ana, Anaheim, and other parts of Orange County from us.
We exclusively test for volatile organic compounds and molds in residential and commercial buildings, giving you accurate results that'll inform your next course of action. Give us a call and schedule your indoor air testing with us.
We cover the entire Orange County region including Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Orange, Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo, Westminster and Newport Beach.
Final Thoughts
We commonly fail to consider VOC testing due to the high outdoor air quality in the city. VOCs levels are usually much higher indoors than outdoors, and they can get into your system through inhalation, ingestion, and absorption. To avoid the health issues that come with high levels of VOCs in your residential or commercial buildings, reach out to us and we'll give you accurate VOC test results.
You can email us directly from the main Contact Us page.
