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POTENTIAL FOR REDUCING INDOOR STYRENE EXPOSURE FROM COPIED PAPER THROUGH USE OF LOW-EMITTING TONERS
Citation:
Henschel*, D B., R. C. Fortmann, N. Roache, AND X. Liu. POTENTIAL FOR REDUCING INDOOR STYRENE EXPOSURE FROM COPIED PAPER THROUGH USE OF LOW-EMITTING TONERS. JOURNAL OF THE AIR & WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION. Air & Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 53(11):1347-1354, (2003).
Description:
Tests were conducted, using 53-L dynamic chambers, to determine airborne styrene emission rates over time from freshly copied paper. Copies were produced on a single photocopier, using two toners manufactured for this copier but having different styrene contents. The resulting emission models were used to predict whether indoor styrene concentrations resulting from copied paper in a typical office might be significantly reduced by use of a low-emitting toner for a given copier. The styrene emissions were best represented by either a 3rd-order decay model, or by a power law model having an exponent between 0.3 and 0.5 (R2 = 0.94 to 0.99). The two toners resulted in copied paper having significantly different styrene emissions (p<0.01), with unit mass emissions (micrograms/square meter) over 1,000 h being 9 times greater with the higher-emitting toner. But copied paper is predicted to produce peak indoor styrene concentrations in a typical office no more than about 0.3% of the estimated minimum concentration of concern to susceptible subpopulations. Thus, for the toners considered here, indoor styrene exposures from copied paper appear too limited to provide incentive for switching to the lower-emitting toner.