Understanding Exposure to Volatile Organic Air Toxics

Principal Investigator

Stuart Batterman

Funding Sources

American Chemistry Council

About this Project

The overall goal of this project is provide an objective basis for characterizing the distributions and determinants of air pollutant exposures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in representative urban populations. The research includes the following: (1) measurements of adult population exposures VOCs using a combination of ambient, indoor, and biological (breath) monitoring; (2) collection of housing, personal, location, and other information that might be related to VOC exposures and that might help explain the relationship between outdoor and indoor exposures; (3) collection of highly time-resolved VOC concentrations at selected ambient locations including tracer gas measurements for air exchange and air flow determinations for a subset of sample population; and (4) data analysis and modeling to characterize and compare VOC exposures for each population group/subgroup, to identify sources of VOC exposure, to compare indoor and personal exposures to those at fixed monitoring sites, and for other purposes. State-of-the-art methods are used to collect integrated VOC samples (thermal desorption tube sampling with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis), continuous VOC monitoring (microanalytical system), and other data. Three communities along an urban/industrial gradient in metropolitan Detroit were selected as field study sites given the significance of existing exposures, the diversity of sources, the wealth of recent air toxics information, the strong partnerships with local community and governmental organizations, and the proximity to investigators. Project results will enhance the understanding of VOC exposures and sources, the accuracy of risk assessments, and the effectiveness of air quality management efforts.