A temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor is used to investigate the mechanism of oxidation of volatile organic compounds by uranium oxide catalysts. Continuous flow studies indicated that butane, benzene and chlorobutane VOCs were oxidised to carbon oxides and no partially oxidised products were observed. A combination of TAP pulse experiments with oxygen present and absent in the gas phase has indicated that the lattice oxygen from the catalyst is responsible for the total oxidation activity. This has been confirmed by studies using isotopically labelled oxygen. It is proposed that the catalysts operates by a odor mechanism utilising lattice oxygen and the high activity shown by U3O8 is due to the facile uranium redox couple and the non-stoichiometric nature of the oxide.