Contribution of traffic emissions to indoor airborne VOCs
- Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
- Conor Pacific Environmental Ltd., Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
The contribution of nearby vehicle traffic to indoor airborne volatile organic compound levels and to personal exposures was examined to determine the importance of this source. Indoor and outdoor levels of selected VOCs, aldehydes, ketones, and ethanol were measured at 10 homes in Toronto, on sidewalks near the traffic source, indoors and in the backyards or balconies of apartments (outdoors). Concurrently, air exchange rates were measured at each home with a perfluorocarbon tracer method. All the residences were within 1 km of urban intersections with traffic counts of more than 20,000 vehicles per day. Average concentrations of hexane, 1,3-butadiene, toluene, benzene and propionaldehyde decreased in the order: street level > indoor > outdoor. These compounds occur in vehicle emissions, and the contribution of outdoor to indoor concentrations ranged from 24 to 88 % suggesting that traffic emissions contributed to indoor pollutant level through the process of air exchange. For other compounds different trends were observed. Indoors concentrations were greater than outdoors for ethylacetate, tetrachlorethane, pinene, limonene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, naphthalene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and ethanol, for example. These compounds are common in consumer products, and the contribution of outdoor to indoor concentrations ranged from 2 to 44%. The differences in street and backyard (outdoor) concentrations for some compounds were large due to the presence of nearby vehicles at street level sampling sites, indicating that the impact of traffic on human exposures (pedestrians on sidewalks and occupants of vehicles) is potentially large, compared to the impact of general background urban air pollutants.
- OSTI ID:
- 682229
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980632-; TRN: IM9942%%214
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 91. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, San Diego, CA (United States), 14-18 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 91. annual meeting and exhibition. Bridging international boundaries: Clean production for environmental stewardship; PB: [5000] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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