How protected from pollution are we indoor? - method for vinyl chloride from indoor air determining

Abstract

The recent research demonstrates that we spent indoor more than 80% of our time, or in case of child and old persons even 85-90%. Thus, the indoor air quality become a very important problem, a highly attention being accorded to find out the sources of pollution in order to reduce as much as possible the pollution in the indoor air. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a product used on a large scale to produce a large variety of products used in buildings construction (windows, doors, floors, paints, fittings, etc.) but also for household assets (vessel, cling film, etc.) without an important effect on human health; uses of PVC products presents problems due to the presence of vinyl chloride monomer absorbed in the material which is slowly desorbed into air and further in the human body were can generate a large variety of manifestations, from simple sensitivity to diverse cancer forms. Concerns to reduce the monomer quantity from PVC products are since ’70, the producers having established maximum concentrations of polymer in their products. In the last years, due to the large scale usage of PVC in construction as well as due to the measures for building energy efficiency trough reduction of air exchange with outdoor, were generated conditions to accumulate, especially in the new buildings, new toxic compounds, including vinyl chloride. The vinyl chloride concentration in the indoor air, depending on the condition, can rise from tenths to hundred or even thousands of µg/m3. The present paper presents the results of the research activities conducted to establish a method to determine the vinyl chloride from indoor air. The methods performance parameters: LOD - 20,3µg/m3, LOQ - 31,1µg/m3 , bias -5,6%, repeatability - 1,31% and recovery 92,3% allow the method to be used for concentrations higher then 30-40 µg/m3; in order to determine vinyl chloride concentrations lower then 10µg/m3 the method sensibility should be improved.