Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
50
40
30
20
10
0
Cities
>100.000 inh.,
USA [1]
Arizona
region,
USA [2]
Helsinki,
Finland [3]
Three urban
centers,
USA [4]
Mexico City
[5]
11 Cities,
Europe [6]
Workplace (building) indoor
Residential indoor
Residential outdoor
Fig. 7 Indoor building, residential and outdoor average concentrations of formaldehyde from
selected studies: (1) BASE (US EPA
2013a
), (2) NHEXAS (Gordon et al.
1999
), (3) EXPOLIS,
Jurvelin et al. (
2001
), (4) RIOPA (Weisel et al.
2005
), (5) Serrano-Trespalacios et al. (
2004
), (6)
AIRMEX (Geiss et al.
2011
). For NHXAS study median is showed instead of average. Bars
indicate standard errors
Fig.
7
, it may be deduced that outdoor air do not seem to contribute to indoor
formaldehyde, a finding consistent with other studies (WHO
2010
).
Besides the studies included in Fig.
7
, other authors reviewed formaldehyde
indoor concentrations worldwide and noticed similar concentrations to those in
Fig.
7
. Average indoor exposure to formaldehyde ranged between 20 and 40 lg/m
3
(Salthammer et al.
2010
) and indoor concentration in public buildings ranged
between 1 and 300 lg/m
3
, with maximum values around 1.500 lg/m
3
(Kolarik et al.
2012
) and where 30-min guideline value (10 mg/m
3
) may be exceed (WHO
2010
).
2.7.3 Naphthalene
Naphthalene, C
8
H
10
, is a two-ring aromatic hydrocarbon. It is considered both
VOC and PAH and, hence, its concentration and exposure are poorly characterised
with respect to other pollutants (Jia and Batterman
2010
). The main exposure to
naphthalene occurs via inhalation of its vapour, but dermal exposure should not be
neglected as naphthalene may be absorbed from clothes (Guerrero and Corsi
2011
). Exposure to naphthalene can cause a variety of short-term adverse effects
such as haemolytic anaemia, liver and neurological damage and cataracts (US EPA
2013c
). Naphthalene is classified as possible human carcinogen by the IARC.
Other long-term effects of naphthalene exposure are similar to the ones observed
for acute exposure, being children more susceptible than adults to haemolytic
effects (Wakefield
2007
).
