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Vapor Transport to Indoor Environments
Citation:
OLSON, D. A. Vapor Transport to Indoor Environments. Chapter 3, S.Saponaro, E. Sezenna and L. Bonomo (ed.), Vapor Emission to Outdoor Air and Enclosed Spaces for Human Health Risk Assessment: Site Characterization, Monitoring and Modeling. Nova Science Publishers, Inc, Hauppauge, NY, 00:59-72, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
The indoor environment is an important microenvironment for human exposure to chemicals, both because people spend most of their time indoors and because chemicals are often at higher concentrations indoors versus outdoors. This chapter reviews the major components in estimating soil vapor intrusion to the indoor environment. A generalized mass balance is presented (time-dependent, ordinary differential equation), and major factors affecting chemical dynamics in indoor air are discussed in the context of this general mass balance. Many of the mechanisms described are not included in soil vapor intrusion models, which typically assume a constant chemical concentration throughout the house. Factors discussed include soil vapor intrusion through the building foundation, air exchange among rooms in a house, and sorptive interactions with building materials.