Exposure and risk assessment of volatile organic compounds and airborne phthalates in Singapore's Child Care Centers

Chemosphere
Shenglan JiaMingliang Fang

Abstract

Infants and children under 6 years old spend most of daily time in Child Care Centers (CCCs), especially in the tropical regions like Singapore. Environmental exposure and associated risk during this early critical developmental stage is of great public concern. In this study, seven representative volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and five typical phthalates were analyzed in the indoor and outdoor air samples collected from 32 Singapore CCCs. The median of total VOC and phthalate concentration in indoor air was 19.03 and 5.41 μg m-3; respectively. For both indoors and outdoors environment, benzene, toluene and xylene were the dominant VOC contributors (more than 68%). For indoor air phthalates, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and di-butyl phthalate (DBP) accounts for 60-76%. The level of both VOCs and phthalates in indoor environment was significantly higher than that in outdoor, with an average indoor/outdoor ratio of 1.24 and 1.45; respectively. A strong correlation (r > 0.50, p < 0.05) was observed between indoor and outdoor air compounds. VOC and phthalate levels have no significant difference between CCCs with split-unit and centrally ventilated air conditioners. Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate exposure uncertainty ...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 23, 2020·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Małgorzata SzewczyńskaMałgorzata Pośniak
Dec 18, 2019·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Alexander V SirotkinAbdel Halim Harrath
Feb 16, 2021·Indoor Air·Mohamed BayatiChung-Ho Lin
Dec 1, 2020·Journal of Hazardous Materials·Mengjing WangMingliang Fang
May 1, 2021·Environmental Health Perspectives·Fanrong ZhaoMingliang Fang
Jun 3, 2021·Healthcare·Yufei Wang, Haifeng Qian
Mar 9, 2020·The Science of the Total Environment·Cong LiuJingguang Li

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