What makes the pages smell in a textbook?
Brad asked:
In a textbook, guidebook, et cetera, basically anything with the extra smooth pages and colored ink, what is it that causes the very strong odor you get when the book is opened?
In a textbook, guidebook, et cetera, basically anything with the extra smooth pages and colored ink, what is it that causes the very strong odor you get when the book is opened?
Does the odor contain any VOCs or anything that might pose harm to human health, or is it innocuous?
Free Moving Backgrounds
August 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
A brand new book will retain the odor of the paper, the print and the adhesive that keeps the pages together. Like the stench of a newly painted room it will soon disappear. But I must, with tongue in cheek, admit that a bibliophobe’s claim that reading is injurious to health is right up there with “the dog ate my homework.”
August 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
the glue in the binder
August 13th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
A new textbook is likely the smell of its components - Ink, Glue, Paper, Coatings. An old textbook may have picked up odors of years of tobacco smoke, storage in a damp place, much handling with greasy fingers, and component deterioration.