VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds form a broad category of chemical compounds, some of which pose a health hazard and can also lead to greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion and acidification of the globe atmosphere. Some VOCs are well known or intuitively suspected such as solvents used for paints, varnishes, cleaning and degreasing, processing of unsaturated polyesters etc., for example chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halogenated fluorocarbons, perfluorinated carbons, hydrofluorocarbons, Freons and other halogenated gases; toluene, xylene, styrene, naphthalene, ethanol, trichloroethylene and other chlorinated solvents...
But other chemicals, more hidden and pernicious, are often neglected such as, for example plasticizers, organic fire retardants, curing agents, residual monomers, oligomers...
Plasticizers are of particular interest because they are used in significant amounts, sometimes several tens of percents, to assume their technical and economic roles. Liquid plasticizers, even having high melting points and, of course, higher ebullition temperatures, have a non-negligible volatility the more so as they are incompatible with their polymer host.