Personal exposures to VOC in the upper end of the distribution—relationships to indoor, outdoor and workplace concentrations
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Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2005
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Collections
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Atmospheric Environment
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
39
Issue / Number
12
Pages / Duration
2299-2307
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Elsevier
Place of publication / Event location
Amsterdam
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
Evaluation of relationships between median residential indoor, indoor workplace and population exposures may obscure potential strategies for exposure reduction. Evaluation of participants with personal exposures above median levels in the EXPOLIS study in Athens, Helsinki, Oxford and Prague illustrated that these participants frequently showed a different relationship to indoor and workplace levels than that shown by the population median. Thus, prioritization of environments for control measures based on median exposures may exclude important areas where effectively focused control measures are possible, and may therefore have little impact on the highest and most harmful exposures. Further, personal exposures at the upper end of the distribution may exceed the US EPA inhalation reference concentration (Rfc), illustrated here using hexane, naphthalene and benzene. For example upper 90th percentile personal exposures to benzene in Athens and Prague were 64 and 27 μg m−3 with peak exposures of 217 and 38 μg m−3, respectively for non-ETS exposed participants relative to an Rfc of 30 μg m−3. Strategies to reduce exposures to individual compounds, therefore, may benefit from focus on the high end of the distribution to identify activities and behaviors that result in elevated exposures. Control strategies targeting activities that lead to exposures in the upper end of the distribution would reduce the variability associated with population median values by bringing the upper end of the exposure distribution closer to median values. Thus, compliance with health-based standards would be more protective of the higher exposed fraction of the population, in whom health effects would be more expected.
Keywords
Volatile organic compounds, Indoor sources, Exposures, Microenvironment concentrations, Hexane, Benzene, Naphthalene
Event
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Exhibition end date
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Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
1352-2310
0004-6981
0004-6981
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
No
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Closed
License
Citation
Edwards, R. D., Schweizer, C., Jantunen, M., Lai, H. K., Bayer-Oglesby, L., Katsouyanni, K., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Saarela, K., Sram, R., & Künzli, N. (2005). Personal exposures to VOC in the upper end of the distribution—relationships to indoor, outdoor and workplace concentrations. Atmospheric Environment, 39(12), 2299–2307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2004.12.026