Contribution to volatile organic compound exposures from time spent in stores and restaurants and bars

Abstract

Many people spend time in stores and restaurants, yet there has been little investigation of the influence of these microenvironments on personal exposure. Relative to the outdoors, transportation, and the home, these microenvironments have high concentrations of several volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We developed a stochastic model to examine the effect of VOC concentrations in these microenvironments on total personal exposure for (1) non-smoking adults working in offices who spend time in stores and restaurants or bars and (2) non-smoking adults who work in these establishments. We also compared the effect of working in a smoking versus non-smoking restaurant or bar. Input concentrations for each microenvironment were developed from the literature whereas time activity inputs were taken from the National Human Activity Patterns Survey. Time-averaged exposures were simulated for 5000 individuals over a weeklong period for each analysis. Mean contributions to personal exposure from non-working time spent in stores and restaurants or bars range from o5% to 20%, depending on the VOC and time-activity patterns. At the 95th percentile of the distribution of the proportion of personal exposure attributable to time spent in stores and restaurants or bars, these microenvironments can be responsible for over half of a person's total exposure to certain VOCs. People working in restaurants or bars where smoking is allowed had the highest fraction of exposure attributable to their workplace. At the median, people who worked in stores or restaurants tended to have 20-60% of their total exposures from time spent at work. These results indicate that stores and restaurants can be large contributors to personal exposure to VOCs for both workers in those establishments and for a subset of people who visit these places, and that incorporation of these non-residential microenvironments can improve models of personal exposure distributions.

Estimated effect of ventilation and filtration on chronic health risks in U.S. offices, schools, and retail stores

“…With a focus on VOCs only, Loh et al. () also concluded that stores (and restaurants) can be large contributors to personal exposure for workers and for a subset of people who visit those spaces. Using DALYs per year as a measure to compare the effects of ventilation and filtration on the health burden of U.S. population, we predicted greater benefits from using MERV 13 air filters than from a doubling of VRs.…”

“…As PM2.5 and formaldehyde are the dominant risk drivers, the total DALYs per year associated with exposure in retail and grocery stores are only modestly lower than that calculated for offices and schools. With a focus on VOCs only, Loh et al (2009) also concluded that stores (and restaurants) can be large contributors to personal exposure for workers and for a subset of people who visit those spaces. Using DALYs per year as a measure to compare the effects of ventilation and filtration on the health burden of U.S. population, we predicted greater benefits from using MERV 13 air filters than from a doubling of VRs.…”

Indoor Air Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds and Evaluation of Their Emission from Various Building Materials and Common Products by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

“…Indoor air quality (Tumbiolo et al, 2005;Salthammer, 2011) has been assessed in various environments, including non-residential buildings (Abbritti & Muzi, 2006;Bruno et al, 2008;Barro et al, 2009;Massolo et al, 2010), residences (Son et al, 2003;Hippelein, 2004;Sax et al, 2004;Ohura et al, 2006;Yamaguchi et al, 2006;Dodson et al, 2009;Liu et al, 2008;Takigawa et al, 2010;Logue et al, 2011), schools (Adgate et al, 2004a;Sohn et al, 2009), hospitals (Takigawa et al, 2004), stores and restaurants (Vainiotalo et al, 2008;Loh et al, 2009). VOCs are regarded as one of the main causes of "sick building syndrome (SBS)" (Harada et al, 2007;Glas et al, 2008;Takeda et al, 2009), and exposure to high concentrations of VOCs can lead to adverse health effects such as acute and chronic respiratory effects, functional alterations of the central nervous system, mucous and dermal irritations, chromosome aberrations, and cancer (Boeglin et al, 2006;Rumchev et al, 2007;Sarigiannis et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2011).…”