This project examines the link between interior manufacturing and chemical pollution – and shows how thoughtful design can lead to safer spaces.
Your Furniture might be poisoning your air.
That “new furniture smell” isn’t just annoying – it’s toxic. From upholstered chairs to laminate flooring, everyday interior products release invisible chemicals that pollute the air, contaminate water systems, and remain in the environment for decades.
Most people spend over 80% of their lives indoors, yet few realize the materials around them may contain cancer linked flame retardants, hormone-disrupting phthalates, and “forever chemicals” like PFAS. These substances don’t just affect human health, they leak into ecosystems, circulate globally, and accumulate where we least expect.
What’s Lurking in the Walls, Floors, and Furniture?
Interior manufacturing covers everything from furniture and textiles to paints, flooring, glues, and wall finishes. These items are often treated with chemicals to resist stains, enhance color, or increase fire resistance. But many of those substances are toxic, persistent, and barely regulated.
Definition: Gases released from certain solids or liquids, including solvents and adhesives
Found in: Cabinets, Flooring, Paint, Adhesives
Risks: Respiratory irritation, Cancer, Air Pollution
Definition: A large class of synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment and human body.
Found in: Water/Stain-Resistant Coatings, Textiles
Risks: Bioaccumulative, Endocrine and Immune Disruption
Definition: Plasticizers added to soften plastics and make them flexible, often not chemically bound to the product.
Found in: Vinyl, Synthetic Leather, Plastic Parts
Risks: Hormone Disruption, Reproductive Harm
Definition: Chemicals added to materials to slow the spread of fire, many of which persist in the environment and build up in people
Found in: Upholstered furniture, curtains, foam cushions, electronics
Risks: Neurotoxicity, cancer risks, long-term accumulation in humans and wildlife
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These chemicals don’t stay locked inside products – they release slowly into indoor air and dust over time.
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Many are linked to long term health risks even at low, continuous exposure.
Air Quality Fact: Indoor spaces – especially newly furnished ones – can have VOCs at levels 2 to 5× higher than outdoors. In some cases, pollutant levels can spike to over 100× outdoor levels. This is why a freshly remodeled room often smells – those odors are chemicals off-gassing into your air.
How Interiors Drive Pollution—and Absorb the Consequences
Interiors don’t exist in isolation – they are active participants in global pollution cycles. From the moment a material is extracted to the day it’s discarded, it leaves behind a chemical footprint. But the damage doesn’t stop there. The same toxic compounds that interiors release into the environment come back into the spaces we live in, through air, water, dust, and product reuse.
What Interiors Release Into the World
• Manufacturing emissions: Producing interior materials releases VOCs, plasticizers, solvents, and heavy metals into the air and water. (Globally, manufacturing building materials accounts for about 11% of carbon emissions)
• Off-gassing indoors: Many materials continue to emit chemicals for months or even years after installation, degrading indoor air quality.
• Toxic waste and leaching: Furniture and building waste often ends up in landfills, where synthetic treatments leach into soil and water or burn into airborne pollutants.
• Microfiber shedding: Synthetic fabrics and foam break down over time, releasing microscopic fibers into household dust – fibers that can carry phthalates, flame retardants, and other toxic residues.
How Pollution Pushes Back
• Stricter regulation: Governments are increasingly restricting or banning hazardous chemicals. For example, PFAS bans are now active in several U.S. states and parts of the EU.
• Shifting supply chains: Scarcity of non-toxic alternatives and pressure for clean materials is reshaping how products are sourced, tested, and manufactured.
• Market pressure: Green building certifications (like LEED, WELL, and Cradle to Cradle) are raising expectations for healthy, sustainable interiors and consumers are demanding transparency.
• Climate crossover: Fossil-derived materials used in interiors (like PVC, polyurethane, polyester) are also major contributors to carbon emissions. The result: Interior manufacturing is deeply entangled in the climate crisis. Choosing renewable, low-impact materials reduces both chemical pollution and carbon emissions – benefiting people and the planet.
The Bottom Line: Interiors pollute, but they are also polluted. Designing cleaner spaces isn’t just about ethics; it’s about breaking a loop that harms both people and planet.
Safer by Design: Materials & Innovations That Change the Game
The interior design industry doesn’t need to be toxic. Around the world, designers and material scientists are developing safe, high-performance alternatives that meet aesthetic and functional goals – without sacrificing health or ecosystems.
Material Shifts
• Mycelium panels: Grown from fungi, mycelium-based materials can replace foam and particleboard. They are lightweight, compostable and free from toxic resins – ideal for wall panels, packaging, and acoustic insulation.
• Low-VOC finishes & adhesives: Water-based, solvent-free options now rival conventional glues and coatings – without the respiratory hazards.
• Bio-based surfaces: Cork, linoleum, hempwood, and algae-derived textiles offer natural texture and performance, with minimal environmental impact.
• Natural insulation: Wool, hemp, and cellulose fiber alternatives replace petrochemical-based foams, providing insulation that breathes and biodegrades.
Circular Product Systems
• Design for disassembly: Furniture built with reversible joints and modular components can be taken apart and reused – avoiding toxic glues and permanent fixings.
• Furniture-as-a-Service: Subscription models for office and contract interiors extend product life, reduce waste, and allow for easy upgrades and remanufacturing.
• Cradle to Cradle certification: Products are assessed not just on function but on material health, reusability, and environmental stewardship across the lifecycle.
Material Transparency Tools
• Mindful Materials Library: A searchable platform helping architects and designers select products based on health, sustainability, and disclosure.
• Parsons Healthy Materials Lab: Offers research, product testing, and design resources to eliminate toxins in interiors. They maintain databases of healthier material alternatives, publish guidance on avoiding the “Six Classes” of harmful chemicals, and run Healthy Affordable Materials workshops for professionals.
• Material passports: Emerging systems track the composition and environmental impact of building products, enabling smarter sourcing and lifecycle planning.
What to Trust: Certifications & Standards
Designing Interiors Means Designing Environmental Outcomes
Interior manufacturing is deeply intertwined with the global rise of chemical pollution – through the use of synthetic materials, toxic coatings, and poorly regulated production practices. These substances not only compromise indoor air quality and human well-being but also contribute to long-term environmental degradation. As awareness grows and regulatory pressure increases, the industry faces both a responsibility and an opportunity to transition toward material transparency, non-toxic innovation, and circular design strategies. Redefining what we consider “good design” is not just a creative challenge – it is an environmental imperative.