apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Very confused -- if she just had a bunch of work done in her new place, especially if it involved breaking down and/or building in walls (especially if it's plaster), probably created a lot of construction dust. If she just recently painted and didn't use a low VOC paint, the paint is probably still off-gassing, which could be an issue if the room isn't well ventilated.

It could also simply be dust from packing, unpacking, cleaning, rearranging, etc. Just vacuuming rugs in my house is enough to irritate my eyes a little...

Not every irritant is related to harsh chemicals in furniture, as much as y'all seem to be interested in highlighting that particular issue. And if a floor cleaned long ago with a harsh cleanser irritates your eyes noticeably, I don't see how you can actually function in the world considering most of the floors of public spaces you walk on every day (your building's lobby, your office, restaurants, shops, etc) are cleaned with much harsher chemicals than anything anyone is likely to have used in your apartment.

Seriously, it's probably construction dust, environmental dust, new paint, or a combination of all those factors. Also keep in mind that this is the period when many apartment buildings turn on the heat for the first time -- which tends to dry the air out a little unless you've been running a humidifier in anticipation of the change. I woke up with dry eyes this morning for that very reason, in fact.

How did the sofa even work its way into the question?

Opoponax is most likely correct that the problem is particulate matter from the plaster project plus drier air from heating being turned on.

I don't get the logic of rejecting an option that would irritate most people's eyes (plaster dust) in favor of one that affects far fewer people (off-gassing).

The reason I thought of the sofa is that my eyes feel irritated only when I'm in the study. The only thing that is in the study and nowhere else is the sofa.
"construction dust, environmental dust, new paint" are all over the apartment: I painted the whole apartment, the wall I put up closes a doorway between the study and my bedroom, and my eyes don't bother me when when I'm in the bedroom. I had new flooring put in, but again, that's in 3 rooms, not just here. The other furniture in the study isn't new. I got to the sofa by process of elimination.

BTW, I'm not suffering from the heater. It's mid-80s here so the windows are wide open. Also, I've never known myself to have chemical sensitivities in the past.

Smile

Sorry Smile, the outburst wasn't so much directed at you, but at what I thought was a weird assumption of jonathanb's. Something got lost in translation, and it seemed like you were asking about construction dust (or just asking an open ended "what in my apartment could be irritating my eyes" sort of question), and he jumped onto the furniture thing despite plenty of more likely culprits. Didn't realize your original question asked about furniture.

Though I wonder if it doesn't have to do with the size of your study and how well ventilated it is. For instance, I find that anything likely to create or raise dust in my very small bedroom (drilling into the plaster walls, or even just a thorough cleaning) tends to aggrivate my sinuses a lot more than doing the same activity in another part of the house. Probably because the dust concentrates in a smaller space.

Walling in a door between the bedroom and study may also have compromised the overall quality of ventilation you get in there, as compared to other parts of the house.