Article

Abstract

• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted from a variety of household and personal care products. Many VOCs are known to be potentially toxic or carcinogenic. Synthetic hair is used in hair-styling practices, including practices in African American communities that involve singeing or heating the synthetic hair. The research questions that we sought to answer were as follows: Are VOCs emitted from singed or heated synthetic hair? If so, what are the VOC species and relative masses identified in singed or heated synthetic hair? We tested samples from 2 sources of singed and heated synthetic hair in a microchamber; one source was flame-retardant synthetic hair and the other source was non-flame-retardant synthetic hair. Our findings confirmed that VOCs are emitted from singed or heated synthetic hair for both types of sources. For flame-retardant synthetic hair, we identified and measured mass for species that included acetone, acetonitrile, 2-butanone, benzene, chloromethane, chloroethane, and 1,2-dichloroethane. For non-flame-retardant synthetic hair, we identified and measured mass for species that included acetone, acetonitrile, chloromethane, trichlorofluoromethane, and 2-propanol.

Creator

• Miller, Shelly L.
• Auguste, Donna

Date Issued

• 2020-01-29

Academic Affiliation

• Environmental Engineering Program
• Mechanical Engineering
• ATLAS Institute

Journal Title

• Environmental Health Insights

Journal Issue/Number

• 1

Journal Volume

• 14

Last Modified

• 2022-05-19

Resource Type

• Article

Rights Statement

• In Copyright

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.1177/1178630219890876

ISSN

• 1178-6302

Language

• English [eng]

License

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International

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