Indoor Level of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in the Home Environment and Assessment of Human Health Risks

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that human exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) might be associated with several adverse health effects. Dietary and microenvironmental sources are considered to be the main routes of PBDEs exposure. The study aimed to investigate PBDEs in residential indoor and outdoor air and further to assess the health risks in family members of different ages. Indoor and outdoor air samples from houses in residential areas were simultaneously collected for analysis of 99, 100, 153, 154, 183, 196, 197, 203, 206, 207, 208, and 209 by high-resolution gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry. PBDE concentrations were non-significantly higher indoors (81.1 pg/m 3 ) than outdoors (42.7 pg/m 3 ) (p = 0.513). For the outdoor air, the mean PBDE level was lower in air outside houses than in air from industrial and urban areas. Levels of Σ 14 PBDEs and BDE-209 in house indoor air were no higher in Taiwan than other countries. The daily intake of non-dietary PBDEs from house air and dust in Taiwan was highest in the toddlers (1-2 years old; 8.22 ng/kg b.w./day) and lowest in the male adults (≥ 20 years old; 0.562 ng/kg b.w./day) among family members. For Taiwanese, the risks of non-cancer (hazard quotient: HQ) and cancer (cancer risk: R) with neurobehavioral effects of exposure to non-dietary PBDEs in the home environment were assessed to be lower than the critical values of 1.00 and 1.00 × 10 -6 for HQs and Rs, respectively. In conclusion, levels of indoor PBDEs and non-dietary daily intake were found to be low in home environments in Taiwan. This result suggests that PBDEs in the home environment are not harmful to family members from the newborn to the elderly if we only consider the neurobehavioral effects.

Pollution Characteristics and Diurnal Variations in Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Indoor and Outdoor Air from Vehicle Dismantler Factories in Southern Taiwan

“…Our value in the outdoor air was only lower than those collected from vehicle parking areas (Li et al, 2016), and in the e-waste storage facilities (Muenhor et al, 2010), and a PRD community (Ding et al, 2016). In comparison with various indoor environments Thuresson et al, 2012;Newton et al, 2015;Shy et al, 2015), indoor air levels of PBDEs in the present study were lower than those in offices, day care centers, and cars, but higher than those in homes and apartments.…”

“…Both indoor and outdoor levels of PBDEs in the present study were higher than those in Taiwanese home environments (Σ 14 PBDEs: 81.1 and 13.1 pg m -3 in indoor and outdoor air, respectively) (Shy et al, 2015) and ambient air in the rural area of Pingtung (Σ 14 PBDEs: 15.9 pg m -3 ) (Chao et al, 2014c). As compared with other studies published from 2004 to 2016 and shown in Table 2, the mean level of PBDEs in the indoor air in the present study was lower than those in the vehicle parking areas in southern China (Li et al, 2016) and e-waste storage facilities in Thailand (Muenhor et al, 2010), but levels were still higher than those in the domestic environment (Wilford et al, 2004;Takigami et al, 2009;Shy et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2016). Our value in the outdoor air was only lower than those collected from vehicle parking areas (Li et al, 2016), and in the e-waste storage facilities (Muenhor et al, 2010), and a PRD community (Ding et al, 2016).…”

“…The HRMS spectrometer was equipped with a positive electron (EI+) source in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode, and the electron energy was specified at 70 eV. The detailed analysis conditions were described in our previous study (Shy et al, 2015).…”

“…Owing to the extensive use by a wide variety of household consumers and people preferring to stay indoors most of the time (more than 90%), indoor environments or microenvironments present a significant contribution of human exposure to PBDEs (de Wit, 2002;Chao et al, 2014a). Indoor air and dust are the possible exposure routes for human exposure to PBDEs in the indoor environment (Chao et al, 2014b;Hsu et al, 2014;Shy et al, 2015;Chou et al, 2016). Compared with PBDE concentrations in outdoor air, elevated levels of PBDEs in indoor air have been presented in most literature Bjorklund et al, 2012;Newton et al, 2015).…”

“…Diverse contaminants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, BFRs, polybrominated dibenzo-pdioxins/furans, cations, anions, heavy metals, dioxin-like compounds, in the indoor environment were the important source of human exposure (Chao et al, 2014a;Chou et al, 2015;Cheruiyot et al, 2015;Saraga et al, 2015;Shy et al, 2015;Gou et al, 2016). PBDEs are easily released from the surface of consumer products such as household electronic equipment, building materials, upholstered furniture, carpets, computers, textiles, and automobiles (de Wit, 2002).…”