Outdoor, Indoor, and Personal Exposure to VOCs in Children
John L. Adgate,1 Timothy R. Church,1 Andrew D. Ryan,1 Gurumurthy Ramachandran,1 Ann L. Fredrickson,1 Thomas H. Stock,2 Maria T. Morandi,2 and Ken Sexton3 1Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 2University of Texas, Houston Health Science Center, School of Public Health, Houston, Texas, USA; 3University of Texas, School of Public Health, Brownsville Regional Campus, Brownsville, Texas, USA
Abstract
We measured volatile organic compound (VOC) exposures in multiple locations for a diverse population of children who attended two inner-city schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fifteen common VOCs were measured at four locations: outdoors (O), indoors at school (S), indoors at home (H), and in personal samples (P). Concentrations of most VOCs followed the general pattern O S < P H across the measured microenvironments. The S and O environments had the smallest and H the largest influence on personal exposure to most compounds. A time-weighted model of P exposure using all measured microenvironments and time-activity data provided little additional explanatory power beyond that provided by using the H measurement alone. Although H and P concentrations of most VOCs measured in this study were similar to or lower than levels measured in recent personal monitoring studies of adults and children in the United States, p-dichlorobenzene was the notable exception to this pattern, with upper-bound exposures more than 100 times greater than those found in other studies of children. Median and upper-bound H and P exposures were well above health benchmarks for several compounds, so outdoor measurements likely underestimate long-term health risks from children's exposure to these compounds. Key words: air pollution, elementary school children, ethnicity, health risk, race, SHIELD study. Environ Health Perspect 112:1386-1392 (2004). [Online 15 July 2004]
Address correspondence to J.L. Adgate, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, Room 1260 Mayo, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA. Telephone: (612) 624-2601. Fax: (612) 626-4837. E-mail: jadgate@umn.edu
We are especially grateful to the participant families and to K. Meyer, D. Heistad, S. Mullett, S. Poston, D. Schultz, O. Brooks-James, B. Cefalu, S. Bishop, L. Zeno, and other staff at the Minneapolis Public Schools for their help in making this study possible. Collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health Indoor Air Program was invaluable to the success of the study.
This research was funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR grants (R825813 and R826789) and a grant from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources.
The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.
S < P 
H across the measured microenvironments. The S and O environments had the smallest and H the largest influence on personal exposure to most compounds. A time-weighted model of P exposure using all measured microenvironments and time-activity data provided little additional explanatory power beyond that provided by using the H measurement alone. Although H and P concentrations of most VOCs measured in this study were similar to or lower than levels measured in recent personal monitoring studies of adults and children in the United States, p-dichlorobenzene was the notable exception to this pattern, with upper-bound exposures more than 100 times greater than those found in other studies of children. Median and upper-bound H and P exposures were well above health benchmarks for several compounds, so outdoor measurements likely underestimate long-term health risks from children's exposure to these compounds. Key words: air pollution, elementary school children, ethnicity, health risk, race, SHIELD study. Environ Health Perspect 112:1386-1392 (2004). [Online 15 July 2004]