Development and implementation of exposure assessment procedures for toxic air pollutants in several Los Angeles County, California Communities. Final report

Technical Report · Fri Jan 20 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6821769

Pellizzari, E D; Michael, L C; Perritt, K; Smith, D J; Hartwell, T D

The California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studied the exposures of 51 residents of Los Angeles, California, to 25 volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in air and drinking water in 1987. The main objective of the study was to measure personal, indoor and outdoor concentrations, and breath concentrations of VOCs in persons living in households that had previously been measured in 1984. A total of 51 homes were visited in February of 1987, and 43 of these were revisited in July of 1987. The results confirmed previous findings of higher personal and indoor air concentrations than outdoor concentrations of most prevalent chemicals; higher personal, indoor, and outdoor air concentrations in winter than in summer; and (in winter only) higher outdoor concentrations at night than in the daytime. New findings were: (1) room-to-room variability of 12-hour average concentrations was very small, (2) 'whole-house' source emission rates were relatively constant during both seasons, with higher rates for odorous chemicals such as p-dichlorobenzene and limonene than for other classes of chemicals; (3) breath concentrations measure during morning and evening were similar for most participants, (4) limited data indicated that toluene and methylene chloride were prevalent at fairly high concentrations.

• Research Organization: Research Triangle Inst., Durham, NC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6821769
• Report Number(s): PB-93-127769/XAB; RTI--3686/00-01F; CNN: ARB-A5-174-33
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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