Question from HEG
Last week a plumber came to my house and applied the Polyseamseal all-purpose caulk to my kitchen sink as it had been leaking. The VOC content was <93 gr/L and the one hazardous ingredient was N-butyl acetate. A week later it still smells very stronger underneath my sink, and I am wondering if you have any suggestions to speed up the off-gassing and whether it could leach into any of the food in our kitchen? I am kicking myself for not demanding that he use the nontoxic sealant that i had previously purchased from chemlink for another job.
Debra’s Answer
Any volatile chemical in the air can be absorbed by food.
It probably still smelly strongly under your kitchen sink because it’s been all closed up for a week.
You can speed up the offgassing by using heat, but I’m a little hesitant to suggest you put a space heater in a cabinet and close it up when there is a chemical that may be flammable under the sink.
You need to ventilate the air out of that cabinet in some way that doesn’t have it go out into your kitchen.
Putting a fan in the cabinet would help the caulk cure faster, but heat would be best. Either way, you need to be able to get the fumes out of the cabinet without contaminating the kitchen.
