WP5 Indoor Environments
Room 17A/B, Level 4
2:10 PM - 5:30 PM, Wednesday, 12 November 2003
Chair: Ulrich, Elin ,
Co-chair: Butt, Craig ,
(445) PBDE and PCDD/F Trends in Organic Films on Interior and Exterior Windows along an Urban-Rural Transect.
Butt, C.1, Diamond, M.1, Truong, J.1, Ikonomou, M.2, 1 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada2 Institute of Ocean Sciences, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada
ABSTRACT- Atmospherically derived organic films are known to form on impervious surfaces in urban and rural areas. As a consequence of their formation processes, through the condensation of gaseous species and particulate deposition, the composition of organic films is representative of ambient air. Films from interior and exterior window surfaces were sampled for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) along an urban-rural transect, extending from downtown Toronto north-westward approximately 80 kilometres. Sampling was conducted during July and August 2001. Total PBDE concentrations in urban films were approximately 10x and 3x greater than rural for interior and exterior films, respectively, indicating a strong urban-rural gradient. Similarly, total PCDD/F concentrations in urban exterior films ranged from 46-446 pg/m2 (n=6, mean=97 pg/m2) compared to 8 and 15 pg/m2 for the Suburban and Rural sites. Interior films exhibited PBDE concentrations 1.4 - 19.5 times greater than exterior films, consistent with the source of PBDEs being within the indoor environment. As a result of the limited sample numbers, no obvious trends in PCDD/Fs were discernable for interior films. Congener profiles were mostly similar between samples, representative of commercial PBDE mixtures, and were dominated by the BDE-209 (51%), BDE-99 (14%) and BDE-47 (9%). PBDE congener profiles suggest a degradative loss of lower brominated compounds in the outdoor films versus outdoor. PCDD/F congener profiles were consistent with urban and rural air particulates, with the exception of two PCDD/F "hotspots". Interestingly, these profiles were dominated by furan congeners and were similar to known combustion profiles.
Key words: pbde, organic films, pcdd/f, indoor/outdoor