Assessment of indoor volatile organic compounds in Head Start child care facilities

Health risk assessment of volatile organic compounds at daycare facilities

“…1,2,3‐trimethylbenzene had the highest mean concentration [0.84 (0.9) µg/m 3 ] among detected aromatic hydrocarbons. A prior studies reported the presence of 1,2,3‐trimethylbenzene at a mean concentration of [0.09 (0.03) µg/m 3 ] and [0.2 (0.2) µg/m 3 ] in child care centers in California 6 and in Missouri, 21 respectively. The variation of aromatic hydrocarbon profiles among the locations showed that all the compounds except cumene, 1,2,4‐trimethylbenzene, ethylbenzene, and benzene were significant ( p < 0.05).…”

“…After six hours of sampling, the tube was disconnected and stored at –20°C until analysis. The analysis of VOCs was performed using CDS Dynatherm 9300 thermal desorption system (CDS) which is interfaced to Agilent 6890 N gas chromatograph coupled with 5973 quadrupole mass spectrometer (Agilent Technologies) as previously described by Vu et al 21 Table S2 summarizes the retention times, monitored ions, calibration curves, recoveries, precisions, and detection limits of the targeted VOCs. Calibrations prepared using seven concentrations (1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, 25, 50, 100 μg/ml) of the standard samples were employed to quantify the 73 targeted analytes.…”

“…These compounds are widely used in household cleaners, spot removers, liquid soaps, dry-cleaning agents, cosmetics, paint thinners, inks, and coatings. 21,38 Significant variations were observed for the concentrations of all compounds (p < 0.05) among different locations (classrooms, hallways, and playground), and no significant variations were found for these two compounds across the classrooms (p > 0.05). 2EtH exhibited higher concentrations in the classrooms than in the hallways and playground with percentage of 13% and 93%, respectively.…”

“…Overall, indoor levels were higher than outdoor levels, which is consistent with other studies, indicating that indoor sources are predominated. 6,21,36 All the esters were positively correlated with each other (Table S9). The highest correlation found was between homomenthyl salicylate and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate (r = 0.84, p < 0.05).…”

“…In this study, the mean concentration of 2EtH in the classrooms is found to be 5.15 (4.07) µg/m 3 (Figure 1(E); Table S1). Previous studies 6,21 have reported lower concentrations of 2EtH [1.9 (1.0) µg/m 3 ] and [1.76…”