Purdue University engineers Nusrat Jung, left, and Brandon Boor study the impact of everyday products and activities on a home’s air quality. Photo by Kelsey Lefever, Purdue University.

News Release

WEST LAFAYETTE — While wax melts, air fresheners and other scented products may make your home smell inviting, two Purdue University researchers say you might be breathing in chemicals that could be harmful to your health.

“A forest is a pristine environment, but if you’re using cleaning and aromatherapy products full of chemically manufactured scents to recreate a forest in your home, you’re actually creating a tremendous amount of indoor air pollution that you shouldn’t be breathing in,” said Nusrat Jung, an assistant professor in Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering.

Jung and fellow civil engineering professor Brandon Boor say scented chemical products release particles into the air that are small enough to get deep into your lungs.

“To understand how airborne particles form indoors, you need to measure the smallest nanoparticles — down to a single nanometer. At this scale, we can observe the earliest stages of new particle formation, where fragrances react with ozone to form tiny molecular clusters. These clusters then rapidly evolve, growing and transforming in the air around us,” said Boor, Purdue’s Dr. Margery E. Hoffman associate professor in civil engineering.

In a small, specially designed “tiny house lab,” Jung and Boor are using state-of-the-art equipment to explore how everyday household products affect indoor air quality.

The two engineering professors are tracking how scented household products emit volatile chemicals — substances that easily evaporate into the air. These chemicals blend with ozone coming into your home through the HVAC system and become airborne pollutants. They say these chemicals might have a significant impact on health.

The researchers hope their findings will improve how indoor air quality is monitored, controlled and regulated.

This air quality research is largely funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Chemistry of Indoor Environments program.