What Are They? Where do they come from?

• Non-Methane Organic compounds, meaning compounds that contain carbon.

• They may occur naturally, or they may be formed by synthetic chemical processes.

• They are a landfill gas that often emerges due to volatilization (when a compound changes from a liquid or solid into a vapor).

• They can also occur due to reactions between certain chemicals present in the waste. 

 

Some Examples of Most Common NMOCs:

• acrylonitrile, benzene, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,2- cis dichloroethylene, dichloromethane, carbonyl sulfide, ethylbenzene, hexane, methyl ethyl ketone, tetrachloroethylene, toluene, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, and xylenes.

 

Health Hazards:

• One hazard of NMOC is the risk of explosion. Depending on the chemical, the explosion hazard is higher. However, most NMOCs alone are unlikely to collect at high enough concentrations to pose explosion hazards. 

• They also may cause odors, depending on the chemical. However, in general, NMOCs are not typically emitting odors as they tend to trace in low concentrations. Benzene, a common NMOC has a paint-thinner- like odor, but its Odor threshold is at 840 parts per billion, much higher than Hydrogen Sulfide at .5 to 1 (this essentially means you are unlikely to smell it compared to something with much more common odor sensitivity). 

• Because there are so many different types of NMOCs, it is impossible to say their specific health hazards. If kept at a low level as they usually are, NMOCs should have no health effects. However, mixed together or in high qualities, the potential certainly exists, with few studies on exactly what these effects would be. 

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Effects on the Community:

• NMOCs typically don't register on the air monitoring site data, they are most likely not a cause for concern to the communities

 

What is a safe amount?

• At 100 ppmv, they can be considered hazardous air pollutants.