| Title: | Temperature driven variations in VOC emissions from plastic products and their fate indoors: A chamber experiment and modelling study |
| Author(s): | Beel G; Langford B; Carslaw N; Shaw D; Cowan N; |
| Address: | "UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Edinburgh EH26 0QB, United Kingdom; Department of Geography and Environment, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom. Electronic address: gb1111@york.ac.uk. UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Edinburgh EH26 0QB, United Kingdom. Department of Geography and Environment, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163497 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1026 (Electronic) 0048-9697 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Plastic products are ubiquitous in our homes, but we know very little about emissions from these products and their subsequent impact on indoor air quality. This is the first study to systematically determine temperature-dependent emissions of volatile organic compounds from commonly used plastic consumer products found in the home. The plastic types included high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS) and polyester rubber. Plastic samples were exposed to increasing temperatures (between 18 and 28 degrees C) in controlled environmental chambers, connected to a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass-spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS), where real-time emissions were detected. Average emission rates were determined and used to initialise an indoor air chemistry model (INCHEM-Py) at the highest and lowest experimental temperatures, to explore the impact these product emissions have on the indoor air chemistry. The PS tubing plastic proved to be the highest emitting polymer per surface area. Almost all selected VOC emissions were found to have a linear relationship with temperature. Upon observing the impacts of primary VOC emissions from plastics in modelled simulations, the hydroxyl radical concentration decreased by an average of 1.6 and 10 % relative to the baseline (with no plastics included) at 18 degrees C and 28 degrees C respectively. On the other hand, formaldehyde concentrations increased by 29 and 31.6 % relative to the baseline conditions at 18 degrees C and 28 degrees C respectively. The presence of plastic products indoors, therefore, has the potential to impact the indoor air quality" |
| Keywords: | Indoor air quality Plastic emissions indoors Polymers Thermal VOCs; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEBeel, Georgia Langford, Ben Carslaw, Nicola Shaw, David Cowan, Nicholas eng Netherlands 2023/04/17 Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jul 10; 881:163497. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163497. Epub 2023 Apr 14" |
