A simple method to measure the gas‐phase SVOC concentration adjacent to a material surface

Abstract

Assessing human exposure to semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) emitted from materials and products is difficult because methods are not available to easily measure the key emission parameters. A simple method based on a passive sampling technique was thus developed to measure the gas-phase SVOC concentration (y ) immediately adjacent to the material surface in a consumer product. The method employs standard stainless steel thermal desorption tubes, with values of y and an additional unknown parameter, K, the tube surface/air partition coefficient inside the desorption tube, obtained by fitting a diffusion model to the sampling data. Phthalates in two types of polyvinyl chloride flooring were selected to test the method. The values of y and K agree well with those measured in independent chamber tests. The y measurement method is shown to be applicable to chemicals with a wide range of vapor pressures. This novel method should be useful for assessing potential exposure to SVOCs in consumer products as well as for exposure-based prioritization of chemicals and their associated products in indoor environments.

A SPME-based method for rapidly and accurately measuring the characteristic parameter for DEHP emitted from PVC floorings

“…Further improvement to the structure of the chamber could be made to measure y 0 without requiring flat source materials, as has been addressed by Wu et al 25 Second, the measured y 0 strongly depends on D a . First, it is only applicable for flat and relatively soft source materials.…”

“…First, it is only applicable for flat and relatively soft source materials. Further improvement to the structure of the chamber could be made to measure y 0 without requiring flat source materials, as has been addressed by Wu et al 25 Second, the measured y 0 strongly depends on D a . Even though the measured and estimated results for D a have demonstrated that equation (6) can provide accurate results, a more comprehensive study of the error of y 0 introduced by the error of D a is required.…”

“…Some methods using sealed chambers, such as the passive flux sampler (PFS) method 23,24 and the C m -history method, 23 have been developed. In addition, Wu et al 25 developed a simple method employing standard stainless steel sorbent tubes (sealed) to determine y 0 . The shape of the source material is not as limiting in the method of Wu et al, 25 whereas it needs to be flat and relatively soft for the chamberbased methods.…”

“…In addition, Wu et al 25 developed a simple method employing standard stainless steel sorbent tubes (sealed) to determine y 0 . The shape of the source material is not as limiting in the method of Wu et al, 25 whereas it needs to be flat and relatively soft for the chamberbased methods. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods for determining y 0 are listed in Table 1.…”

“…m -history or PFS24 • Placing SVOC source and sorption material together in a sealed chamber; • Monitoring sorbed-phase SVOC concentration before steady state; • Calculating y 0 by fitting mass transfer model to measured data.• Eliminating the effect of h m on the accuracy of y 0 by employing sealed chamber; • Uncertainty in L (the thickness of the sealed chamber) reduces the accuracy of y 0 ; • Experimental time: for DEHP, several days to 70 days.Thermal desorption tube25 …”