The Dust Exposome

Human Indoor Exposome of Chemicals in Dust and Risk Prioritization Using EPA’s ToxCast Database

“…A simple search with the keywords “chemical” and “dust”, “house dust”, or “indoor dust” in search engines, including PubMed and Web of Science, resulted in over 5000 publications. The concepts of “indoor exposome” or “dust exposome” representing the summation of one’s lifetime indoor exposure to chemicals or microbes, have been introduced in several recent reviews with great significance in characterizing human indoor exposure. , The meta-analysis of indoor chemical levels in dust has been nicely investigated in a few previous studies, showing ubiquitous indoor exposure to many legacy or emerging contaminants. ,, However, most of those studies were conducted either in the U.S. only, or studying a few targeted compounds . There is a global monitoring boom of environmental chemicals in the past decade and many known or novel compounds have been identified due to the advance of analytical techniques.…”

“…The concepts of "indoor exposome" or "dust exposome" representing the summation of one's lifetime indoor exposure to chemicals or microbes, have been introduced in several recent reviews with great significance in characterizing human indoor exposure. 1,7 The meta-analysis of indoor chemical levels in dust has been nicely investigated in a few previous studies, showing ubiquitous indoor exposure to many legacy or emerging contaminants. 2,3,8 However, most of those studies were conducted either in the U.S. only, 8 or studying a few targeted compounds.…”

Selection of metric for indoor‐outdoor source apportionment of metals in PM 2.5 : mg/kg versus ng/m 3

“… 19 Nevertheless, a number of mathematical models have successfully incorporated indoor sources of elements such as Zn in Portugese house dust 93 and biogenic S in Japanese homes. 36 As settled dust is both a repository and a source for a diverse range of contaminants, 15 , 100 future PM source apportionment efforts would benefit from exploiting the elemental composition of house dust as a valuable indicator of indoor sources. Size fractionation of house dust indicates that an abundance of fine material is available for resuspension and potential inhalation exposures, with fine particles (<1.8 µm aerodynamic diameter) constituting about 25% of settled dust by weight.…”

Relationships between House Characteristics and Exposures to Metal(loid)s and Synthetic Organic Contaminants Evaluated Using Settled Indoor Dust

“…Mechanisms for the transfer of contaminants from indoor sources to settled dust include volatilisation and subsequent sorption to dust, and degradation of products and coatings followed by deposition of the abraded particles [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Indoor sources include building materials such as vinyl flooring, synthetic carpets and composite wood; consumer products such as electronics, personal care products, foam cushions, plastics, toys, scented cleaning agents and air fresheners [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]; and emissions from smoking, cooking and other combustion sources, including wood-burning, candles and flint lighters [ 2 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Studies have demonstrated direct transfer of chemicals from source product to dust; for example, Bi et al [ 18 ] found that the concentration of benzyl butyl phthalate (BBzP) in dust in direct contact with vinyl flooring was 10-fold higher than dust from non-vinyl surfaces in the same home.…”

“…Questionnaires administered in house dust studies vary according to the purpose, scale and design of the study, and (depending on jurisdiction) ethical, legal and privacy constraints. Large randomized dust studies, aimed at quantifying population-scale exposures to chemicals, tend to document basic characteristics of each household, such as house age, building style, socioeconomic status, smoking behaviour, types of flooring and heating fuel [ 13 , 17 , 32 , 33 ]. Hypothesis-driven studies, which tend to address one contaminant or chemical class at a time (such as lead or flame retardants), require detailed observations of potential sources, e.g., indoor paint and other interior decoration materials, room-by-room variations in furniture, and use of electronic devices [ 25 , 34 , 35 ].…”