Indoor environment factor · measured in µg/m³
Styrene
Part of: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Also: vinylbenzene, styrene monomer, styrol, phenylethylene
An aromatic volatile compound and the monomer of polystyrene. Indoors it comes from plastics and resins that retain unreacted monomer, from combustion and tobacco smoke, and from heated polymers such as the filament of a desktop printer.
Where it comes from indoors
Polymerisation is never complete, so a polystyrene product holds a residue of the monomer it was made from and releases it slowly — which is why insulation boards, packaging, some carpets and moulded plastics all appear in the list of indoor sources, most strongly when new. Polyester and other resins that cure in place release it while curing.
Heat accelerates it decisively. Material extrusion printing melts the polymer on purpose, and styrene is the emission that distinguishes one common filament from the others; the release rises steeply with nozzle temperature.
The third route is combustion: burning any styrene-containing plastic produces it, and it is present in tobacco smoke.
It is classified as probably carcinogenic to humans, which puts it among the compounds worth identifying individually rather than leaving inside a total volatile organic compound figure.
What the studies report
| Linked to | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | emission-rate 113.10 | — · test chamber | review of the emission characteristics of volatile organic compounds released during material extrusion printing with ABS and PLA filaments in chambers, laboratories and workplaces, with the influencing factors compiled | F-1499 Gao et al. Emission Characteristics of Volatile Organic Compounds from … (2025) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Identifiers
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Styrene. Coridum Knowledge G-0203, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0203/