Volatile organic compounds in selected micro-environments

Hinwood, Andrea; Berko, H.; Farrar, D.; Galbally, Ian E.; Weeks, Ian

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.08.038

Cited by 45 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…1 day, 1 month or 1 year. If over the given period of time, T, the person passes through n locations, spending a fraction f n of the period T in location n where the concentration of the pollutant under consideration is C n , then the personal exposure for this period T, represented by the concentration C T , is given by (Hinwood et al 2006):…”

Section: Personal Exposure Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of benzene and formaldehyde in a medium sized urban environment. Indoor/outdoor health risk implications on special population groups

Pilidis

Karakitsios

Kassomenos

et al. 2008

Environ Monit Assess

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In the present study, the results of a measurement campaign aiming to assess cancer risk among two special groups of population: policemen and laboratory technicians exposed to the toxic substances, benzene and formaldehyde are presented. The exposure is compared to general population risk. The results show that policemen working outdoor (traffic regulation, patrol on foot or in vehicles, etc.) are exposed at a significantly higher benzene concentration (3-5 times) than the general population, while the exposure to carbonyls is in general lower. The laboratory technicians appear to be highly exposed to formaldehyde while no significant variation of benzene exposure in comparison to the general population is recorded. The assessment revealed that laboratory technicians and policemen run a 20% and 1% higher cancer risk respectively compared to the general population. Indoor working place air quality is more significant in assessing cancer risk in these two categories of professionals, due to the higher Inhalation Unit Risk (IUR) of formaldehyde compared to benzene. Since the origin of the danger to laboratory technicians is clear (use of chemicals necessary for the experiments), in policemen the presence of carbonyls in indoor air concentrations due to smoking or used materials constitute a danger equal to the exposure to traffic originated air pollutants.

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Section: Personal Exposure Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of benzene and formaldehyde in a medium sized urban environment. Indoor/outdoor health risk implications on special population groups

Pilidis

Karakitsios

Kassomenos

et al. 2008

Environ Monit Assess

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“…Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ambient air are associated with emissions from a range of sources such as motor vehicle exhaust, motor vehicle fuel evapourative losses, industrial activities, petroleum refining, petroleum storage and dispensing facilities, surface coating and solvent use, domestic wood heaters, biomass burning, environmental tobacco smoke, use of solvents and glues and cleaners in arts and crafts [1]. VOC emissions from surface coating and solvent use sources may build up in residences, office buildings, indoor recreational areas, vehicles occupied for transport and locations for catching or servicing transport as well as partially enclosed public places and private residences in the ambient urban atmosphere where people spend their time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biofiltration and kinetic aspects of a biotrickling filter for the removal of paint solvent mixture laden air stream

Mathur

Majumder

2008

Journal of Hazardous Materials

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“…If over the given period of time, T, the person passes through n locations, spending a fraction f n of the period T in location n where the concentration of the pollutant under consideration is C n , then the personal exposure for this period T, represented by the concentration C T , is given by [19]:…”

Section: Passive Sampling Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure Modeling of Benzene Exploiting Passive–Active Sampling Data

Karakitsios

Kassomenos

Sarigiannis

et al. 2009

Environ Model Assess

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The objective of the present study is the exploitation of active sampling personal exposure data in assessing the factors that affect exposure to benzene in combination with the widely accepted scheme of passive sampling-time microenvironment-activity diaries (TMAD). The campaign included personal exposure measurements with both passive and active sampling in several microenvironments, evaluation of TMAD kept by the volunteers, and a variety of environmental data (ambient air benzene determination, traffic and meteorological observations). Due to the relatively elevated benzene traffic emissions, average personal exposure was determined to be equal to 8.9 μg/m 3 , ranging between 5 and 20 μg/m 3 , which is a value highly related to the average urban concentration (9.2 μg/m 3 ). The information gained from TMAD was embedded (in terms of spatial and temporal distribution) into three zones respectively, in order to draw statistically significant conclusions about the exposure levels and the activity patterns. The contribution of the activities to the overall amount of exposure was further quantified and refined by active sampling measurements. These data revealed that driving in a traffic-congested road was the main activity leading to elevated exposure levels (up to 70 μg/m 3 ), followed by walking on the roadside of a congested road (up to 35 μg/m 3 ). Indoor exposure to benzene was in general lower than outdoor (indicating that traffic is the dominant source of benzene emissions in the wider area), and it was significantly affected by the presence of environmental tobacco smoke. The higher significance of the regression coefficients obtained by statistical analysis of the active sampling data was fundamental for the development of a regression-based prediction exposure model. The model was evaluated through comparison with the passive sampling data, which were considered as an unknown but realistic data exposure pattern. The model performed very well in terms of expressing the variance of the exposure data with an average score of R 2 equal to 0.935. All of the above indicate that active sampling is a necessary albeit more laborious tool that needs to be used as a complement to passive sampling for precise quantification of the factors determining personal exposure patterns.

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Volatile organic compounds in selected micro-environments

Cited by 45 publications

References 9 publications

Measurements of benzene and formaldehyde in a medium sized urban environment. Indoor/outdoor health risk implications on special population groups

Measurements of benzene and formaldehyde in a medium sized urban environment. Indoor/outdoor health risk implications on special population groups

Biofiltration and kinetic aspects of a biotrickling filter for the removal of paint solvent mixture laden air stream

Exposure Modeling of Benzene Exploiting Passive–Active Sampling Data

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