Healthcare VOC Compliance Calculator

An open-source calculator and dataset collection for evaluating VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) exposure from cleaning products used in healthcare facilities. Covers 26 jurisdictions across the United States and Canada.

Given a cleaning product's VOC content, a room's geometry, and ventilation parameters, this tool calculates:

• VOC concentration (mg/m³) at steady state during a cleaning cycle
• OSHA PEL comparison — what percentage of the Permissible Exposure Limit the concentration represents
• Time to safe reentry — how long until VOC concentration drops below 10% of PEL
• Annual VOC load — total VOC released per year at the given cleaning frequency
• Multi-jurisdiction compliance — whether the product meets VOC limits in each of 26 jurisdictions

Two CSV datasets are included in datasets/:

VOC limits (g/L) for 25 cleaning product categories across 26 jurisdictions:

• US Federal (EPA 40 CFR Part 59 Subpart C)
• California (CARB Consumer Products Regulations)
• 12 OTC states (CT, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, DC)
• 8 states with independent regulations (MI, CO, IL, IN, IA, OH, UT, WA)
• Canada Federal (SOR/2021-268)
• Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec

Each row includes the product category, numeric VOC limit, regulation name, effective date, and healthcare-specific context notes.

Synthetic product data modeled on real institutional cleaning product categories:

• VOC content (g/L concentrate and effective diluted)
• Certifications (Green Seal GS-37, UL ECOLOGO, EPA Safer Choice, UL GREENGUARD Gold, LEED v4)
• Per-jurisdiction compliance flags (compliant/non-compliant in each of 26 jurisdictions)
• Healthcare approval status, IPAC compatibility rating
• Pricing (CAD/litre), dilution ratios, coverage rates
• Recommended healthcare facility types

effective_voc     = product_voc_g_per_L × dilution_ratio
product_applied_L = room_sqft / coverage_sqft_per_L
total_voc_mg      = effective_voc × product_applied_L × 1000

# Single-zone mass balance with ventilation
emission_rate     = total_voc_mg / cleaning_duration_hr
ventilation_rate  = air_changes_per_hour × room_volume_m3
steady_state      = emission_rate / ventilation_rate

osha_pel_percent  = (steady_state / 300) × 100

ASHRAE 62.1-2022 minimum ventilation rates for healthcare spaces are built in as reference values:

The calculation is implemented in seven languages. Each exposes /calculate (POST) and /health (GET) REST endpoints:

pip install healthcare-voc-compliance
# or run from source:
cd engines/python
pip install -r requirements.txt
python engine.py          # CLI mode — runs sample calculation
python engine.py --serve  # HTTP server on port 8001

curl -X POST http://localhost:8001/calculate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "room_sqft": 200,
    "ceiling_height_ft": 9,
    "product_voc_g_per_L": 8.0,
    "dilution_ratio": 0.015625,
    "coverage_sqft_per_L": 400,
    "air_changes_per_hour": 6,
    "cleaning_frequency_per_year": 365,
    "product_category": "General Purpose Cleaner",
    "space_type": "patient_room"
  }'

• EPA 40 CFR Part 59 Subpart C — US federal VOC emission standards for consumer products
• CARB Consumer Products Program — California VOC limits
• Canada SOR/2021-268 — Federal VOC concentration limits
• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1000 Table Z-1 — Permissible Exposure Limits
• ASHRAE 62.1-2022 — Ventilation for healthcare facilities
• Green Seal GS-37 — Institutional cleaning product standard
• UL GREENGUARD Gold — Low-emission certification for sensitive environments
• EPA Safer Choice — Product certification program

healthcare-voc-compliance/
├── datasets/
│   ├── generate_regulatory_limits.py     # Dataset A generator
│   ├── generate_product_matrix.py        # Dataset B generator
│   ├── voc_regulatory_limits.csv         # 650 regulatory limits
│   └── healthcare_cleaning_products_voc.csv  # 5,000 products
├── engines/
│   ├── python/engine.py                  # Python (FastAPI)
│   ├── rust/src/main.rs                  # Rust
│   ├── java/src/.../VOCCalculator.java   # Java
│   ├── ruby/lib/healthcare_voc_compliance.rb  # Ruby
│   ├── elixir/lib/healthcare_voc.ex      # Elixir
│   ├── php/src/VOCCalculator.php         # PHP
│   └── go/main.go                        # Go
├── notebooks/
│   └── voc_compliance_analysis.ipynb     # Jupyter analysis notebook
├── pdfs/
│   └── generate_pdfs.py                  # PDF white paper generator
├── docs/                                 # Sphinx documentation
└── public/                               # PHP web frontend

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Maintained by Dave Cook — Binx Professional Cleaning, North Bay and Sudbury, Ontario.