Abstract
Measurements of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs), known as markers of emissions resulting from burning practices using natural- and synthetic biomaterials, have been carried out in major religious/ritual-indoors in India. Four different religious/ritual-indoors were selected for monitoring purposes: 1) Hindu Marriage Places (MP), 2) Muslim Holy Shrines (MG), 3) Buddhist Temples (BT), and 4) Hindu Temples (HT). One pure residential-indoor (RESID) site was also examined for comparison studies. Indoor VOCs sampling was carried out throughout the three seasons of summer, fall and winter of the calendar year of 2012–2013 in Raipur, India. VOCs samples, collected by passive sampling over a 48-h period, were analyzed using thermal desorption (TD), followed by high-resolution gas chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection (GC/MS). A total of 14 volatile organic compounds (n-hexane, cyclohexane, n-heptane, noctane, n-nonane, n-decane, n-undecane, styrene, o-xylene, m,p-xylene, 1,2,4-trimethyl benzene, ethylbenzene, benzene, and toluene.) were quantified. The annual mean concentrations for total VOCs (TVOCs) were 216.61 ± 75.15, 656.34 ± 220.82, 681.75 ± 219.83, 129.51 ± 45.24 and 82.67 ± 40.96 µg/m 3 for MP, MG, BT, HT and RESID respectively. The results were found to be higher than the prescribed standards and earlier reported indoor VOCs levels. Indoor/outdoor ratios (I/O), correlation analyses, seasonal variations and indoor/outdoor contributions to the measured levels are also investigated.
Highlights
Selective studies on indoor Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were conducted and reported for commercial activity centers in India; described the quantification of 40 VOCs and most of these were found to be below the prescribed limits, except higher concentration of benzene and carbon tetrachloride compared to the permissible limits (Srivastava and Devotta, 2007)
The present study has found information for the level of VOCs in religious/ritual-indoors in Raipur, Central India
Concentrations of all individual VOCs were found higher in all indoor religious and ritual places compared to residential-indoors
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been identified as one of the major indoor air contaminants due to construction of well-sealed houses using various types of insulators (Berk et al, 1980), usage of painting materials in indoor-houses (Srivastava et al, 2000), household cooking fuels (Liquid petroleum gas, kerosene, solid fuels etc.) (Sinha et al, 2006; Huang et al, 2011), adhesive- bonded material use in plywood/ PVC flooring (Low et al, 1998; Wilke et al, 2004; Jarnstom et al, 2008; Choi et al, 2010; Kang et al, 2013) and house furniture’s (Fisher et al, 1962; NRC, 1980; USDHUP, 1980; Franklin, 1981). Season variation and outdoor infiltration of VOCs were determined for selected indoor environments: 1) residential, 2) classrooms, 3) office buildings, 4) photocopy centers in Germany (Rehwagen et al, 2003), Spain (Esplugues et al, 2010), Japan and China (Ohura et al, 2009), Thailand (Ongwandee et al, 2011), Turkey (Pekey and Arslanbas, 2008), Izmir, Turkey (Sofuoglu et al, 2011), Taiwan (Lee et al, 2005), and Hong Cong (Lee et al, 2001)
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