Atmospheric chemistry
Household chemicals now rival cars for US VOCs
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
A 2016 inventory finds volatile chemical products emit as much regulated VOC as all US mobile sources, with substantial IVOC/SOA potential.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
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Evidence for the claim as stated.
A 2016 inventory finds volatile chemical products emit as much regulated VOC as all US mobile sources, with substantial IVOC/SOA potential.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Discoveries this paper informs or conflicts with
- Paints, cleaners and personal-care products now emit as much regulated VOC as every US vehicle
This paper informs this development.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Computational / modelling — VCPy national inventory of volatile chemical product emissions with Monte Carlo uncertainty
- N
- US 2016 county-allocated inventory; 95% CI 2.61–3.53 Tg; Los Angeles emission-ratio evaluation
- Population
- United States volatile chemical product use in 2016
- Outcome
- VCPs emit as much regulated VOC as all US mobile sources, with substantial IVOC and SOA potential
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Inspect source passages
Household chemicals now rival cars for US VOCs
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
National per capita VCP organic emissions are 9.5 kg per person per year in 2016.
National per capita organic emissions from VCPs are 9.5 kg per person per year (6.4 kg C per person per year) for 2016, which translates to 3.05 Tg (2.06 Tg C) for the U.S.
Regulated VCP VOC totals 2.6 Tg, equal to all mobile sources nationally.
When filtered to remove regulatory exempt organics, total emissions from VCPs are 2.6 Tg of VOC and equal in magnitude to the sum of all mobile sources nationally, thus highlighting the growing importance of the VCP sector.
Key findings
US VCP organics are 3.05 Tg (9.5 kg per person per year). After dropping regulatory-exempt compounds, 2.6 Tg VOC equals all mobile sources. About 20% of organics are IVOCs; effective SOA yield is 5.3% and ozone MIR 1.58 gO3 g−1. Usage and composition, not fate/transport, dominate uncertainty (95% CI 2.61–3.53 Tg).
Methodology
Authors built VCPy, mapping product-use categories, composition, evaporation vs use timescales, and controls, then allocated national 2016 emissions to counties and tested them with Monte Carlo uncertainty and Los Angeles emission-ratio evaluation.
Limitations
This is an inventory, not a chemistry-transport simulation of ozone or SOA. Indoor loss, time evolution, and some industrial controls are simplified, and Los Angeles skill may not generalize everywhere.
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