Journal article
Airborne PCBs and OH-PCBs inside and outside urban and rural U.S. schools
Environmental science & technology, Vol.51(14), pp.7853-7860
07/18/2017
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b01910
PMCID: PMC5777175
PMID: 28656752
Abstract
PCBs appear in school air because many school buildings were built when PCBs were still intentionally added to building materials and because PCBs are also present through inadvertent production in modern pigment. This is of concern because children are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of PCBs. Here we report indoor and outdoor air concentrations of PCBs and OH-PCBs from two rural schools and four urban schools, the latter near a PCB-contaminated waterway of Lake Michigan in the United States. Samples (n=108) were collected as in/out pairs using polyurethane foam passive air samplers (PUF-PAS) from January 2012 to November 2015. Samples were analyzed using GC/MS-MS for all 209 PCBs and 72 OH-PCBs. Concentrations inside schools were one to two orders of magnitude higher than outdoors and ranged 0.5–194 ng/m
3
(PCBs) and 4–665 pg/m
3
(OH-PCBs). Congener profiles were similar within each sampling location across season but different between schools and indicated the sources as Aroclors from building materials and individual PCBs associated with modern pigment. This study is the first cohort-specific analysis to show that some children’s PCB inhalation exposure may be equal to or higher than their exposure through diet.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Airborne PCBs and OH-PCBs inside and outside urban and rural U.S. schools
- Creators
- Rachel F Marek - University of Iowa, IIHR--Hydroscience and EngineeringPeter S Thorne - University of Iowa, Civil and Environmental EngineeringNicholas J Herkert - University of Iowa, IIHR--Hydroscience and EngineeringAndrew M Awad - Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City IA (USA) 52242Keri C Hornbuckle - University of Iowa, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Environmental science & technology, Vol.51(14), pp.7853-7860
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.est.7b01910
- PMID
- 28656752
- PMCID
- PMC5777175
- NLM abbreviation
- Environ Sci Technol
- ISSN
- 0013-936X
- eISSN
- 1520-5851
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000066, name: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, award: P42ES013661
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/18/2017
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Occupational and Environmental Health; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering; Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Human Toxicology; Iowa Superfund Research Program
- Record Identifier
- 9984001799902771
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