Compilation and analysis of types and concentrations of airborne chemicals measured in various indoor and outdoor human environments

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2015-05, Vol.127, p.70-86
• Main Authors: Cometto-Muñiz, J. Enrique, Abraham, Michael H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution, Indoor - analysis; Animals; Commercial buildings VOC concentrations; Environment; Environmental chemical exposures; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Home/school VOC concentrations; Humans; Oil and Gas Industry; Outdoor VOC concentrations; Swine; Volatile organic compounds (VOC); Volatile Organic Compounds - analysis
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.12.089

[Display omitted] •The literature was searched for airborne chemicals measured indoors and outdoors.•Included were homes/schools, malls/stores, outdoors nonindustrial and industrial.•Type and concentration of all compounds found are illustrated in graphs and tables.•The concentration of compounds common to different environments is compared.•The concentration spread of single compounds is presented in graphs and tables. The main purpose of this article is to summarize and illustrate the results of a literature search on the types, levels, relative concentrations, concentration spread of individual chemicals, and number of airborne compounds (mostly volatile organic compounds, VOCs) that have been found, measured, and reported both indoors and outdoors. Two broad categories of indoor environments are considered: (1) home/school, and (2) commercial spaces. Also, two categories of outdoor environments are considered: (1) non-industrial and (2) industrial (the latter represented by the vicinity of a pig farm and the vicinity of an oil refinery). The outcome is presented as a series of graphs and tables containing the following statistics: geometric mean, arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation, variance, standard error, interquartile distance, minimum value, maximum value, and number of data (data count) for the air concentration of each reported compound in a given environment. A Supplementary Table allows interested readers to match each single value included in this compilation with its corresponding original reference.