LinkedIn·Tuesday, 4 August 2026·22d ago

Time for some chemistry. Ozone reacts with carbon-carbon double bonds, and terpenes - the compounds carrying scents in most cleaning…

AIRSCAN

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Time for some chemistry. Ozone reacts with carbon-carbon double bonds, and terpenes - the compounds carrying scents in most cleaning products -are built around exactly that bond. Limonene gives you citrus, alpha-pinene gives you pine, linalool gives you lavender, and every one of them presents the same target. Ozone adds across the bond and forms an intermediate that survives a fraction of a second before the molecule comes apart, leaving behind a set of carbonyls that were never in the bottle. Several of them irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and the best known of the group, formaldehyde, is classified by IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization as a human carcinogen. The same break leaves heavier pieces of the original molecule, too low in volatility to stay as vapour, so they condense within seconds into fresh ultrafine particles, which is how wiping a countertop lifts the particle count in a room that was clear ten minutes earlier. This is the part you might already know: fine particles can easily reach the air sacs deep in the lung, crossing into the bloodstream and carrying inflammation to the heart and blood vessels - which is the pathway behind the heart attack and stroke risk attached to fine particle exposure. Switching to fragrance-free products removes the terpene and the reaction never happens. Where scented products stay in use, open the windows while cleaning and leave them open afterwards, since the carbonyls and the particles keep forming for as long as the scent is still in the air. #Airscan #IAQTesting #IndoorAirQuality #KnowYourAirSeries #HealthyBuildings