| Title: | "Diurnal variation and potential sources of indoor formaldehyde at elementary school, high school and university in the Centre Val de Loire region of France" |
| Author(s): | Hu D; Tobon Y; Agostini A; Grosselin B; Chen Y; Robin C; Yahyaoui A; Colin P; Mellouki A; Daele V; |
| Address: | "Institut de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ICARE-CNRS/INSIS, 1C, Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orleans cedex 2, France; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Electronic address: dawei.hu@manchester.ac.uk. Institut de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ICARE-CNRS/INSIS, 1C, Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orleans cedex 2, France. Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Lancaster University, UK. Lig'Air - Reseau de surveillance de la qualite de l'air en region Centre, 260, Avenue de la Pomme de Pin, 45590 Saint-Cyr-en-Val, France. Institut de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ICARE-CNRS/INSIS, 1C, Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orleans cedex 2, France. Electronic address: veronique.daele@cnrs-orleans.fr" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152271 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1026 (Electronic) 0048-9697 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Formaldehyde (HCHO) is one of the abundant indoor pollutants and has been classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Indoor HCHO at schools is particularly important due to the high occupancy density and the health effects on children. In this study, high time resolved measurement of formaldehyde concentration was conducted in the classrooms at elementary school, high school and university under normal students' activities in three different locations in the Region Centre Val de Loire-France. Indoor average formaldehyde concentrations at those three educational institutions were observed to be in the range 10.96-17.95 mug/m(3), not exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value of 100 mug/m(3). As expected, ventilation was found playing an important role in the control of indoor formaldehyde concentration. After opening windows for 30 min, formaldehyde level decreased by ~25% and 38% in the classroom at the elementary school and the high school, respectively. In addition to the primary sources, the objective of this study was also to determine potential secondary sources of indoor formaldehyde in these schools by measuring the other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the classrooms by a Proton Transfer Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS). The measurements suggest that the release of residue from tobacco smokers is one of the major sources of indoor HCHO at the high school, which increases HCHO by ~55% averagely within 1 h. Moreover, the control experiments conducted in the university suggests that VOCs such as that released from cleaning products like terpenes, can contribute to the increase of indoor formaldehyde levels through chemical reactions with ozone. This study confirms simple recommendations to reduce the indoors HCHO concentration in schools: use ventilation systems, limit the emissions like cigarette smoke or cleaning products. It also points out that the secondary sources of formaldehyde must be also considered in the classroom" |
| Keywords: | "*Air Pollutants/analysis *Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis Child Environmental Monitoring Formaldehyde/analysis Humans Schools Universities Ventilation *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis Formaldehyde Indoor air quality School classrooms Seasons;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineHu, Dawei Tobon, Yeny Agostini, Aymeric Grosselin, Benoit Chen, Ying Robin, Corinne Yahyaoui, Abderrazak Colin, Patrice Mellouki, Abdelwahid Daele, Veronique eng Netherlands 2021/12/14 Sci Total Environ. 2022 Mar 10; 811:152271. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152271. Epub 2021 Dec 10" |
