Concentrations of selected organic pollutants in indoor and outdoor air in Northern Italy

Abstract

This paper reports on an observational study of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the air of 14 homes and one small office building. The study consists of two parts: (a) 4–7 days mean values of the concentrations of 35 selected VOC have been determined together with some complementary parameters in indoor and outdoor air in order to get an indication of the relative importance of indoor air pollution by VOC in this geographical area; (b) six indoor air samples have been analysed in detail by GC-MS for a more complete qualitative characterization of indoor air pollution by VOC. Major results are: concentrations of the 35 selected VOC were nearly always higher indoors than outdoors, often by an order of magnitude. The mean concentration of total volatile organic compounds was about 3 mg/m³ indoors compared to 0.4 mg/m³ outdoors. Detailed GC-MS analysis leads to the identification of a much larger number of compounds (more than 100 in two cases). Most of the identified compounds are solvent constituents and many of them have also been detected in northern Europe and in the United States. This points to common use consumer products as major sources rather than to building materials, which differ between geographical areas.