You are here:
CONCENTRATIONS OF PARTICULATE ORGANIC SPECIES MEASURED IN INDOOR AND OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTS DURING THE TAMPA ASTHMATIC CHILDREN'S STUDY ( TACS )
Citation:
OLSON, D. A., S. R. MCDOW, R. W. WILLIAMS, C. D. STEVENS, AND J. TURLINGTON. CONCENTRATIONS OF PARTICULATE ORGANIC SPECIES MEASURED IN INDOOR AND OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTS DURING THE TAMPA ASTHMATIC CHILDREN'S STUDY ( TACS ). Presented at 24 Annual Conference, American Association for Aerosol Research, Austin, TX, October 17 - 21, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objectives for this task are:
to assess the contribution of outdoor sources to total personal exposures for high priority air toxics and components of particulate matter (PM),
to identify the important microenvironments and human activities contributing to high exposures for these pollutants, and
to evaluate and refine model algorithms and inputs by incorporating new approaches and data, and modularizing model algorithms for application to multiple air pollutants (particles/gases).
Description:
The Tampa Asthmatic Children's Study (TACS) was completed to assess environmental exposures for a group of asthmatic children (n = 9) under the age of six and living in Tampa, Florida. Concentrations of particulate organic species are reported from residential indoor, residential outdoor, and ambient microenvironments from the TACS. Concentrations of particulate organic species are reported from three different compound classes: alkanes (C27 to C35), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and hopanes. All samples were collected on Teflon filter media using Harvard Impactors (PM2.5 size selection) which operated for 24 hours at 10 L/min (four consecutive days per subject). To increase analytical sensitivity for quantitation of these low volume samples, all samples were analyzed using a programmable temperature vaporization (PTV) injection gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Preliminary data indicate that outdoor concentrations from all three chemical classes were typically at least a factor of two higher than indoor concentrations, suggesting the possible influence of mobile sources. As an example, average hopane concentrations from one study participant were 40.4 pg/m3 outdoors and 3.8 pg/m3 indoors. Results from all study participants and all compound classes will be presented.
Although this work was reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.