Special
Producers of ecological adhesives
THE FIGHT AGAINST VOC A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE ‘ENEMY’: WHAT ARE VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS? knows that in order to reduce emissions you have to reduce or even eliminate the quantity of chemical products. Just as with a car, you keep emission values low both before and during the production of the adhesive and afterwards during the application. And so, you make sure that you strive for zero emissions of so called volatile organic compounds (VOC).
VOC in a nutshell It is appropriate here to give some explanation of VOC and for our source we consulted the Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety, en the Environment. They told us that volatile organic compounds are a collection of substances which belong to various chemical families and share the common feature of evaporating quickly at room temperature. The fact is that VOC are composed of carbon and hydrogen. VOC can have two sorts of origin, namely an anthropogenic and a natural one. The former substances originate from refinement, the evaporation of organic solvents, unburnt gases, and such like, and the latter are created by emissions by plants or certain fermentations. Depending on their origin, they are biologically degradable faster or slower through bacteria and moulds, and even through plants, or degradable through UV or through ozone. Due to their volatile character, they can spread close to or a long way from their emission place. And so, they can have direct and indirect effects.
Photo – Pallmann
Ecology is in the news more than ever before, as we note, for instance, from the many items which the recent climate convention in Glasgow threw up. In the parquet industry, too, green awareness continues to grow, and that’s a good thing. Working with products which cause as little harm as possible benefits the climate, floor users, and parquet floor fitters themselves. Various developments mean that adhesives are now increasingly ‘ harmless’.
Result of reaction What is it that makes an adhesive ‘ecological’? To answer that question, we need to know firstly what an adhesive actually does. Basically, an adhesive is a substance which joins objects together by creating a reaction between the various ingredients of the adhesive itself or between the adhesive and an external ingredient. This creates an adhesive reaction which is either physical or chemical. In short, the former does not create a chemical reaction, but the latter does. With the latter you can make a further subdivision into different reactions and, therefore, different adhesives. For instance, with dual component adhesives a chemical reaction takes place when the components are joined together. With other adhesives the reaction can be created by other factors such as contact with damp in the atmosphere. Strictly speaking, you have to look at the ingredients used to assess potentially harmful effects to the environment. Even a young child
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Impact of VOC on health That is all very well, but what we particularly want to know is what impact they have on our health. You should realise that total VOC emissions indicate the organic pollution of the indoor environment. In contrast to what is generally accepted, VOC as a whole do not have a direct effect on health. With regard to these VOC, researchers are studying on the one hand the effects of individual substances and, on the other hand, the ‘cocktail effect’ of some compounds which are present in the environment, but the latter should not be confused with the effect of VOC in general. With individual substances, researchers have discovered that some are more problematic than others. Some of them, such as ethanol, for instance, are harmless in ordinary concentrations in the indoor air, others have an effect on the airways (formaldehyde), others are allergenic (limonene), and others still are carcinogenic (benzene or formaldehyde). And so, an evaluation of the specific risks is necessary for each of the substances of the VOC family. With ‘cocktails’, a mixture of pollutant substances originating from various sources can have pernicious effects on the environment or health, whilst the individual substances on their own do not have those effects. Yet it’s not per se about compounds of VOC amongst themselves. For instance, the effect of particles on the lungs is worsened by the presence of formaldehyde (which is a VOC).
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