Distribution of flame retardants among indoor dust, airborne particles and vapour phase from Beijing: spatial-temporal variation and human exposure characteristics

Yacai Zhang; Min Wu; Menghan Xu; Pengtuan Hu; Xin Xu; Xiaotu Liu; Wenwen Cai; Jing Xia; Dongkui Wu; Xiaopeng Xu; Gang Yu; Zhiguo Cao

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2022.107557

Distribution of flame retardants among indoor dust, airborne particles and vapour phase from Beijing: spatial-temporal variation and human exposure characteristics

Environ Int. 2022 Dec:170:107557. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107557. Epub 2022 Oct 5.

Authors

Yacai Zhang¹, Min Wu², Menghan Xu¹, Pengtuan Hu¹, Xin Xu¹, Xiaotu Liu³, Wenwen Cai¹, Jing Xia⁴, Dongkui Wu⁵, Xiaopeng Xu¹, Gang Yu⁶, Zhiguo Cao⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment, Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China.
² School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; State Key Laboratory of Water Resource Protection and Utilization in Coal Mining, Beijing, 100011, China.
³ School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; School of Environment, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁴ School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁵ School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China.
⁶ School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: ygden@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Environment, Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China. Electronic address: wq11ab@163.com.

PMID: 36209599
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107557

Abstract

The occurrence and distribution of 10 brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and 10 organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) were investigated in indoor dust, total suspended particles (TSP), and vapour phase from offices (n = 10), homes (n = 9), and day-care centres (n = 10) in Beijing, China. Three types of samples were collected biweekly from one office and one home over a year to examine temporal trends. BFRs in dust significantly correlated with those in TSP, while OPFRs significantly correlated among all three matrices. In addition, BFRs in dust (ng/g) and TSP (pg/m³) exhibited similar temporal trends with higher levels in the cold season, whereas OPFRs in TSP and vapour phase (pg/m³) showed similar temporal trends with higher levels in the warm season. The geometric mean concentrations of BFRs and OPFRs in the three matrices from the above mentioned three types of indoor microenvironments were used for exposure and health risk estimation, and ∑₇OPFRs showed much higher hazard index (HI) values than ∑₁₀BFRs for all subpopulations, and inhalation of OPFRs was a major risk source. With the volatility of flame retardants (FRs) decreasing, the contribution of dust ingestion and dermal absorption showed an increasing trend, and the contribution of inhalation exhibited a gradual decreasing trend, which implied the dominant exposure pathway to FRs is strongly related to the vapour pressure (25 °C, Pa) of these substances. Using a single type of microenvironment or the collection of samples at a single point in time can lead to overestimation or underestimation of overall exposure and risk for people to some extent. The correlations of FRs in dust, TSP, and vapour phase from indoor microenvironments, as well as their temporal trends were first reported in this study, which will provide a basis for more accurate FR exposure assessments in the future.

Keywords: Exposure patterns; Flame retardants; Health risk assessment; Multi-matrix; Spatial and temporal variation.

MeSH terms

Beijing
China
Dust
Flame Retardants*
Humans

Substances

Flame Retardants
Dust