Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Air-Conditioner Filter Dust Used to Assess Health Risks in Clinic and Electronic Plant Employees

To assess the effect of floor levels of high-rise apartment buildings on the accumulation of contaminants in indoor environment, residential air-conditioner filter dust (ACFD) samples from the 1 st , 10 th , 20 th and 30 th floors of a high-rise apartment building were collected for the determination of n-alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results show that both n-alkanes and PAHs in the residential ACFD were ubiquitous but varied greatly in concentrations. The total concentrations of 27 n-alkanes (Σ 27 AK) and 16 PAHs (Σ 16 PAH) ranged from 1.35 to 9290 µg g -1 and 278-34200 ng g -1 , respectively. Source apportionment revealed that n-alkanes were from mixed sources combining fossil fuel combustion, natural emission and solid biomass burning, but PAHs were mainly from indoor sources. Furthermore, the diagnostic ratio of paired low weight molecular PAH species may change during transportation and accumulation. Significantly higher concentrations of Σ 27 AK and Σ 16 PAH were observed in the samples from low floor levels (the 1 st and 10 th floors) compared to those from high floor levels (the 20 th and 30 th floors). The results of classification and regression tree analysis clearly suggested floor level is the most important factor influencing the accumulation of Σ 27 AK and Σ 16 PAH in the ACFD. Our findings imply that people living on lower floor levels have greater exposure risks to PAHs associated with indoor dust.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Height on the Accumulation of n-Alkanes and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Air-Conditioning Filter Dust from High-Rise Apartments

Wang

Qian

Liu

et al. 2017

“…In current global studies on HFRs related to environmental contamination, most scientists are interested in PBDE contamination, and very little attention is being paid to DP and NBFRs. There have been a significant number of PBDE studies considering PBDE contamination of foodstuff, in human specimens, soil, indoor dust, and indoor and outdoor air, including gas and total suspended particulate matter (TSP) Chou et al, 2016;Gou et al, 2016a). However, only a few studies have focused on PBDEs as respirable fine particulates (PM 2.5 ) (Li et al, 2015b;Chao et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of Non-PBDE Halogenated Fire Retardants and Brominated Dioxins and their Toxicological Effects in Indoor Environments - A Review

Hsu

Arcega

Gou

et al. 2018

Self Cite

Non-polybrominated diphenyl ether (non-PBDE) halogenated fire retardants (HFRs) such as new or novel brominated fire retardants (NBFRs) and dechlorane plus (DP) have been widely spread in the environment and recognized as emerging persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the recent years, mainly due to the continuous increase in their global demand, especially after the worldwide restrictions on PBDE use. Polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PBDD/Fs) are the unintentional byproducts of PBDE commercial formulations in the indoor environment. Although HFRs, including NBFRs, DP, and PBDD/Fs, are ubiquitous in the indoor environment due to the large-volume release from the surfaces of consumer products, only a few in vitro and in vivo studies have addressed their toxic effects. In this review article, global data on NBFRs, including decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE), bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,4,5,6-tetrabromophthalate (BEH-TEBP), and 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (EH-TBB), DP, including syn-DP and anti-DP, and PBDD/Fs in indoor aerosol and dust are summarized from recent literature. Based on the gathered data, indoor dust is a major sink for indoor contamination and is of great concern due to the fact that dust ingestion is one of the primary routes for human exposure to these chemicals. Lastly, the toxic effects of NBFRs, DP, and PBDD/Fs identified in in vitro and in vivo studies are summarized and discussed based on the current published reports. However, there is still a lack of sufficient toxicity data for assessing their risks. Future works are encouraged to focus on indoor PM 2.5 -bound HFR levels to further evaluate their toxic effects on human health.

“…For high-tech industries, many studies have shown their exposure concentrations of an individual compound (such as ethanol, acetone, butyl acetate, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA)) could be much lower than that of traditional industry, and particularly lower than their time-weighted-average permissible exposure concentrations (PEL-TWAs) (Zappe, 1995;Chuah et al, 2000;Wu et al, 2004;Chang et al, 2010a;Cheng et al, 2016;Chou et al, 2016;Guerra et al, 2017). Apparently, chemical exposures in the high-tech industry might not cause significant health risk posed on workers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term Multiple Chemical Exposure Assessment for a Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) Industry

Wang

Kuo

et al. 2017

A surrogate approach was deployed for assessing long-term exposures of multiple chemicals at 8 selected working areas of 3 manufacturing processes located at a clean room of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry. For each selected area, 6 to 12 portable photoionization detector (PID) were placed uniformly in its workplace to measure its total VOCs concentrations (C T-VOCs ) for 6 randomly selected workshifts. Simultaneously, one canister was placed beside one of these portable PIDs, and the collected air sample was analyzed for individual concentration (C VOCi ) of 107 VOCs. Predictive models were established by relating the C T-VOCs to C VOCi of each individual compound via simple regression analysis. The established predictive models were employed to construct a year-long C VOCi databank based on the measured year-long C T-VOC for each selected area using the same portable PID. The ethanol (381 ppb-2,480 ppb), acetone (123 ppb-624 ppb) and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate 29 (PGMEA; 14.4 ppb-2,241 ppb) dominated in all selected areas, and all measured C VOCi were much lower than their permissible exposure limits. Predictive models obtained from simple linear regression analyses were found with an R 2 > 0.453 indicating that C T-VOCs were adequate for predicting C VOCi . The predicted year-long C VOCi reveals that long-term total multiple chemical exposures of all selected areas fall to the range 0.10%-20% of the permissible exposure level. Using the C T-VOCs as a surrogate for the routine checking purpose, the present study yielded allowable C T-VOCs fall to the ranges of 49.1 ppm-577 ppm. Considering the approach used in the present study requires less cost and manpower, it would be applicable to similar industries for conducting long-term multiple chemical exposure assessments in the future.