1. Seasonal and diurnal patterns of outdoor formaldehyde and impacts on indoor environments and health.
- Author
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Zhang, Hemiao, Zheng, Zihao, Yu, Tao, Liu, Cong, Qian, Hua, and Li, Jingguang
- Subjects
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FORMALDEHYDE , *HEALTH risk assessment , *INDOOR air quality , *ENVIRONMENTAL risk assessment , *SEASONS , *DISEASE risk factors - Abstract
Formaldehyde is concerned as an important indoor carcinogen. While contribution of outdoor formaldehyde to indoor concentration is recognized, long-term measurement about its impact on indoor environments remain missing. We measured both outdoor and indoor formaldehyde concentrations for over one year in Nanjing (east-central China) and calculated the outdoor/indoor (O/I) ratios. 64.8% of the measured outdoor concentration have exceeded the chronic reference exposure criteria of 0.009 mg/m3 set by Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). The outdoor concentration was highest in summer with median value of 0.020 mg/m3 and lowest in spring with median value of 0.009 mg/m3. Diurnally, outdoor formaldehyde concentration was highest at noon with median value of 0.013 mg/m3 and lowest at night with median value of 0.01 mg/m3. Health analysis revealed that cancer risk by exposure to this concentration level is 1.6 × 10−4, higher than threshold limit of 10−6. In addition, the median O/I ratios are 0.18 and 0.27 in two offices, indicating that outdoor formaldehyde contributes to indoor concentrations by about one quarter. The change of O/I ratio also shows a similar seasonal and diurnal trend as outdoor concentrations (highest in the summer in a year and at noon in a day). Outdoor formaldehyde concentration is therefore not negligible as a contributor to indoor concentration, especially as indoor concentration limit gets continuously lowered. This factor should be taken into account in indoor air quality design and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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