The identification of Volatile Organic Compound’s emission sources in indoor air of living spaces, offices and laboratories

Beata Kultys,M Czaplicka,O Czechowski,W Rogula-Kozłowska,J Fudała,J Kyzioł-Komosińska,I Sówka,K Juda-Rezler,G Majewski,M Jabłońska-Czapla

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20182801018

Abstract

Indoor air quality is important because people spend most of their time in closed rooms. If volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present at elevated concentrations, they may cause a deterioration in human well-being or health. The identification of indoor emission sources is carried out by comparison indoor and outdoor air composition. The aim of the study was to determinate the concentration of VOCs in indoor air, where there was a risk of elevated levels due to the kind of work type carried out or the users complained about the symptoms of a sick building followed by an appropriate interpretation of the results to determine whether the source of the emission in the tested room occurs. The air from residential, office and laboratory was tested in this study. The identification of emission sources was based on comparison of indoor and outdoor VOCs concentration and their correlation coefficients. The concentration of VOCs in all the rooms were higher or at a similar level to that of the air sampled at the same time outside the building. Human activity, in particular repair works and experiments with organic solvents, has the greatest impact on deterioration of air quality.

Highlights

Indoor air quality is an important issue for this reason that people spend most of the time in all kinds of rooms [1]
The sources of indoor air pollution can be different, they may be both materials for furnishing the room and human activity or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can get from the outside through ventilation or windows if the building is located near emitters such as roads or industrial plants [5,6,7]
To find out if the sources of emissions are inside the building, it is necessary to compare the concentrations of individual compounds, not just the total concentration of VOCs

Summary

Introduction

Indoor air quality is an important issue for this reason that people spend most of the time in all kinds of rooms [1]. The sources of indoor air pollution can be different, they may be both materials for furnishing the room and human activity or VOCs can get from the outside through ventilation or windows if the building is located near emitters such as roads or industrial plants [5,6,7].

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