Indoor pollutant sources are ubiquitous. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are among the broad classes of compounds found in the indoor environment through emissions and leaching from building materials, furnishings and human activities such as cooking, cleaning, use of consumer products etc. VOCs are organic chemicals with saturation vapour pressures greater than 10−2 kPa at 25°C, whereas SVOCs are those with saturation vapour pressures between 10−2 and 10−8 kPa at 25°C. 1 The resulting air pollutants can be transported from sources to indoor air, surfaces, settled dust and airborne particles.
Human exposure to VOCs and SVOCs occurs by direct contacts through hand and other skin surfaces, ingestion through hand-to-mouth and diet activities, and inhalation of gases and airborne particles.
The SVOCs frequently reported in indoor dust are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), flame retardants, phthalate, musks/fragrances and pesticides with concentrations between pg/g and a few mg/g of indoor dust. 2 Due to space restriction, this editorial only focuses on the inadvertent generated PCBs (iPCBs), PFASs and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) in indoor dust that have been studied in recent years in the laboratory of United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling.
Understanding Semi-volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs) in Indoor Dust (2022)
