Volatile Compounds Emitted from the Cat Urine Contaminated Carpet before and after Treatment with Marketed Cleaning Products: A Simultaneous Chemical and Sensory Analysis

Abstract

Urination on carpet and subflooring can develop into a persistent and challenging problem when trying to mitigate odor. Very little or no information is published on how volatile organic compounds (VOCs) change over time when urine is deposited on a carpet covering a plywood-type subflooring. This research has investigated the VOCs emitted from carpet + subflooring (control), carpet + subflooring sprayed with water (control with moisture), and cat urine-contaminated carpet + subflooring (treatment) over time (day 0 and 15). In addition, the study has recorded the effect of four popular cleaning product applications on VOCs emitted from carpet and evaluated their efficacy in eliminating cat urine related indoor odors over time (days 0 and 15). Carpet-subflooring with all treatments were also contaminated with Micrococcus luteus, a nonmotile obligate aerobe commonly found in household dust, to observe the impact of the aerobe on carpet-subflooring VOCs emission. VOCs emitted from carpet + subflooring receiving different treatments were collected from headspace using solid-phase microextraction (SPME). The VOCs were analyzed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry olfactometry (GC-MS-O). Many common VOCs were released from the carpet on day 0 and day 15, specifically from urine contamination. Cleaning products were effective in masking several potent odors of cat urine contaminated carpet VOCs on day 0 but were unable to remove the odor that appeared on day 15 in most cases.