RETHINK ‘FRESH AIR'

Decorators get hip to off-gassing. By Joe Harper

- Joe Harper

Like many interior designers, Brigette Romanek loves a high-gloss paint—a lacquer finish so shiny you can see your reflection in it. But the Los Angeles decorator had to rethink her methods after she gave her usual treatment to the interior walls of a home in Hancock Park and her clients almost fell ill from the smell.

She’d expected the fumes to dissipate by the time they returned from vacation more than a week later, but she quickly realized one’s sense of smell isn’t always the best judge of air quality. “Right then and there, something clicked,” says Romanek, who’s worked with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé and Jay-Z. “My clients had fresh noses, but I had gotten used to it—that was the danger.”

Romanek has since joined a growing number of designers, manufacturers, and real estate developers who’ve been paying closer attention to air quality inside the home long before the novel coronavirus made 6 feet of fresh air de rigueur.

Much of the effort so far is to counteract the insidious consequences of “off-gassing.” Many common consumer products emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—potentially harmful gases such as benzene and formaldehyde that are mostly undetectable to the senses —into the air at home. The process can last years.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says these pollutants can negatively affect immunity and respiratory and cardiovascular health, and some may even cause cancer. One EPA study found the levels of some VOCs were “two to five timeshigher inside homes than outside,” no matter if they were in rural or highly industrial areas. On average, the agency said, Americans spend 90% of their time indoors (in good times).