The Relative Importance of Indoor and Outdoor Sources for Determining Indoor Pollution Concentrations in Homes in Seoul, South Korea

Lee, Jae Young; Kim, Kyung-Hwan; Ryu, Sung Hee; Kim, Chang Hyeok

doi:10.5572/ajae.2018.12.2.127

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene compounds are often an indicator of combustion emissions and gasoline vapors, for example, traffic, gas stations, industry 67,68 . While the studied hotels were near busy roads and other VOC sources (eg, gas station ~200 m distant), outdoor VOC levels were low (eg, benzene levels did not exceed 0.8 µg/m 3 ), and no combustion sources in the studied hotels were observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Occupational exposure and health risks of volatile organic compounds of hotel housekeepers: Field measurements of exposure and health risks

Lin

Rosemberg

et al. 2020

Indoor Air

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Hotel housekeepers represent a large, low‐income, predominantly minority, and high‐risk workforce. Little is known about their exposure to chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This study evaluates VOC exposures of housekeepers, sources and factors affecting VOC levels, and provides preliminary estimates of VOC‐related health risks. We utilized indoor and personal sampling at two hotels, assessed ventilation, and characterized the VOC composition of cleaning agents. Personal sampling of hotel staff showed a total target VOC concentration of 57 ± 36 µg/m3 (mean ± SD), about twice that of indoor samples. VOCs of greatest health significance included chloroform and formaldehyde. Several workers had exposure to alkanes that could cause non‐cancer effects. VOC levels were negatively correlated with estimated air change rates. The composition and concentrations of the tested products and air samples helped identify possible emission sources, which included building sources (for formaldehyde), disinfection by‐products in the laundry room, and cleaning products. VOC levels and the derived health risks in this study were at the lower range found in the US buildings. The excess lifetime cancer risk (average of 4.1 × 10−5) still indicates a need to lower exposure by reducing or removing toxic constituents, especially formaldehyde, or by increasing ventilation rates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Occupational exposure and health risks of volatile organic compounds of hotel housekeepers: Field measurements of exposure and health risks

Lin

Rosemberg

et al. 2020

Indoor Air

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“…The higher indoor VOCs concentrations than bus parks could be due to the indoor VOCs sources, as shown in other indoor microenvironments, such as offices (Zuraimi, M. et al, 2006;Daisey, J. et al, 1994), residents (Lee, J. Y. et al, 2018;Yamaguchi, T. et al, 2006) and shopping malls (Tang, J. et al, 2005). The accumulation of VOCs could also be plausible explanation for the higher indoor VOCs.…”

Section: Chapter 4 -Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…et al, 2001;Gennaro, G.D. et al, 2016). Therefore, many research papers reported VOCs were detected in diverse indoor microenvironments, such as offices (Zuraimi, M. et al, 2006;Daisey, J. et al, 1994), residents (Lee, J. Y. et al, 2018;Yamaguchi, T. et al, 2006) and shopping malls (Tang, J. et al, 2005).…”

Section: Sources Of Vocsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement and analysis of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) at Singapore's integrated transport hubs (ITH)

Lee¹

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Millions of commuters should spend time waiting for their buses at bus interchanges every day in Singapore. Environmental exposure to vehicular emissions at transport hub and associated risks are of public concern. To date, limited studies have focused on the indoor air quality at Integrated Transport Hubs (ITHs), which are fully air-conditioned bus interchanges adjoined with subway stations and commercial facilities.In this study, 12 representative Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and 16 EPA priority pollutant Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were selected, collected from 9 bus interchanges at both indoor waiting area and bus park sampling points, and then analyzed.The daily VOCs and PAHs exposure for commuters were estimated by considering inhalation and dermal doses using Monte Carlo simulation (n=100,000), and human health risks for the exposure to selective pollutants were further evaluated.The median concentration of total VOCs (TVOCs), total gaseous PAHs (TgPAHs) and total particulate-bound PAHs (TpPAHs) in indoor areas were 30.42 µg/m 3 , 18.99 ng/m 3 and 1.38 ng/m 3 , respectively. Besides, the median concentrations for bus parks were 20.24 µg/m 3 , 24.26 ng/m 3 and 1.94 ng/m 3 in sequence. In general, the pollutant concentration levels were not significantly different between waiting areas and bus parks, but showed positive correlations (TVOCs: r = 0.90 , p < 0.001; TgPAHs: r = 0.75, p < 0.001; TpPAHs: r = 0.39, p < 0.05), suggesting some air exchange dependency between the spaces. The high correlations between VOCs and gPAHs components were found, which implied the bus exhaust might be the dominant source of the pollutants. The indoor waiting area to bus park pollutant concentration ratio (I/B ratio), a new indicator representing the concentration relationship between indoor and bus park samples, was calculated for each pollutant group, and lower I/B ratios of pollutants were found (TVOCs: 0.98; TgPAHs: 0.76; TpPAHs: 0.71) in the bus interchanges with fully sheltered bus parks than those with open/partially enclosed bus parks (TVOCs: 1.28; TgPAHs: 1.31; TpPAHs: 0.90).The findings in this study imply that the fully sheltered bus park may affect the dilution of air pollutants resulting in the accumulation in adjacent indoors.From the result of the dose estimation, it was found that inhalation was the dominant exposure route of VOCs accounted for 99%, while dermal absorption was the major route of PAHs accounted for 82%. Most concentration levels of VOCs at Singapore's ITHs were found to be below EPA's reference concentrations (RfC) except for naphthalene, but the maximum concentration was less than the twice of its safety benchmark. However, vi benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene and naphthalene exceed the stringent OEHHA benchmarks, as similar to other countries' reports. The concentration levels of PAHs at ITHs were found to be within their safety benchmarks through the estimation of Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) for carcinogenic risk and the comparison with EPA's RfC for noncarcinogenic r...

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Identify Primary Air Pollution Sources of BTEX by Using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF): A Case Study of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Nguyễn¹,

Hoang²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2023

Arch Environ Contam Toxicol

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The Relative Importance of Indoor and Outdoor Sources for Determining Indoor Pollution Concentrations in Homes in Seoul, South Korea

Cited by 12 publications

References 37 publications

Occupational exposure and health risks of volatile organic compounds of hotel housekeepers: Field measurements of exposure and health risks

Occupational exposure and health risks of volatile organic compounds of hotel housekeepers: Field measurements of exposure and health risks

Measurement and analysis of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) at Singapore's integrated transport hubs (ITH)

Identify Primary Air Pollution Sources of BTEX by Using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF): A Case Study of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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