People love the new house smell! What exactly is the new house smell so many people like??  Well literally, it is the chemical off gassing of man made products such as carpeting, engineered woods, furniture, paints and other common items.   Some people are more sensitive than others to the chemical breakdown that happens in a new house.   Some of the biggest offenders are the man made lumber products such as pressboard, modern engineered floor joists, countertops, particle board and furniture.... it is the adhesives used in these products that cause the most problems. It can sometimes takes years for these gasses to totally dissipate.   If those items aren't enough, manufacturers are now adding smells to everything these days from pencils to tissues.  I bet we all know someone is sensitive to entering a retail store with an overabundance of smells.  Or what about those homes for sale with an OVERpowering air freshener or just way too many scented candles.  I've had clients run from these homes due to asthma or allergies.  (  It's not enough to mask an odor in a home for sale. You really need to get to the source. But this is another topic!)

The new carpet smell is another big one.  This new carpet smell comes from 4-PC which is used in the latex backing of popular carpeting.  Stain guards, moth proofing and fire retardants add to the chemical cocktail present in most carpeting today.   VOC's, 'volatile organic compounds,' are found in carpeting.  These include toluene, benzene, formaldehyde, ethyl benzene, styrene, acetone and a other chemicals.  I've read that formaldehyde has been banned from use in the newer carpeting products, though I couldn't confirm that for sure. 

www.CNN.com  had an article just today on the 'new car smell.'   Even cars host toxic chemicals! See the article here: http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/01/31/toxic_cars/index.html .  From the article: 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A Michigan environmental group is charging that at least part of the so-called "new car smell" is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals.

The report, "Toxic at any speed," comes from The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group. It reports that PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.

For your real estate questions, and homes for sale in Contra Costa County (San Francisco's East Bay Area) call Catherine Myers at www.DiabloValley.net

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