Source apportionment and health risk assessment of indoor volatile organic compounds

Abstract

In extremely cold areas with long winter months and exceptionally cold weather, classrooms are inadequately ventilated, resulting in the continuous accumulation of indoor air pollutants that may endanger human health. This article uses adsorption tube sampling-thermal desorption-gas chromatography mass spectrometry to analyze the type and concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the classroom. The source analysis and health risk assessment were performed, and the real-time concentration of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) was computed using the multifunctional ventilation. The result shows that the air in the classroom contains 25 kinds of VOCs. Among them, the carcinogenic risk value of seven kinds of VOCs (3.40 × 10-5) exceeds the acceptable risk value (1 × 10-6) given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). There are 17 kinds of VOCs that pose a certain non-carcinogenic risk to the human body. After quantitative analysis by the principal component analysis (PCA) and the characteristic quantity concentration ratio method, human activities, furnishings, outdoor penetration, etc., were found to be main sources of VOCs in the classroom. In addition, TVOC concentration is directly proportional to class time. In winter, classrooms in severely cold areas must take necessary measures to reduce the concentration of VOCs and ensure students' health.

Investigation of indoor air quality in coal-heating rural residential buildings in Northern China based on longtime monitoring

“…The ventilation time and frequency were highly deficient for rural buildings in winter, while insufficient ventilation could lead to the accumulation of indoor air pollutants, which may harm human health. 38 As shown in Figure 4(d), 80% of farmers woke up between 6:00 and 7:00 and then opened the doors or windows for ventilation. 90% of residents went to bed after 21:00.…”

Source apportionment for indoor air pollution: Current challenges and future directions

“…A source related to office floor cleaning characterized by significant fractions (>80 %) of 2-butoxyethanol was revealed by the PCA study of Campagnolo et al (2017), although the emissions from the flooring materials themselves were not excluded. The application of PCA on 25 VOCs measured inside a university classroom in China (Bai et al, 2022), revealed that four out of seven factors were associated with deodorants, cleaners and cosmetics, though it was not possible to distinctly identify each source (more than one factor was associated with the same tracer). However, the authors concluded that among VOCs detected in the classroom, PАНs originate from automobile exhaust emissions, while the main source of halogenated hydrocarbons and chlorinated hydrocarbons was the use of solvents.…”

Thermal desorption-based method for quantifying semi-volatile organic compounds in house dust: Method development and evaluation

“…[13][14][15] Due to the merits of easy collection and high SVOC concentrations, house dust has been extensively used to assess the pollution level, human exposure and health risks of SVOC in indoor environments. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The determination of SVOC concentrations in house dust typically consists of three procedures: sampling, pretreatment and chemical analysis. 26 The sampling of house dust mainly includes two methods: (1) the vacuum-based method, in which house dust is collected by a filter (or a sampling bag sometimes) assembled in the vacuum cleaner, which is more often used in existing studies, 11,[27][28][29] and (2) the brush-based method, in which house dust is collected using a brush.…”

“…13–15 Due to the merits of easy collection and high SVOC concentrations, house dust has been extensively used to assess the pollution level, human exposure and health risks of SVOC in indoor environments. 16–25…”