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Control of indoor air contaminants.

Ayer HE

Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1988 Jan; :1-18

00181256

Efforts were made to determine the probability of air contaminants within 1 meter reaching the nose from either a point source thermal generation of an aerosol or from generations of vapor by evaporation. The study also attempted to define the objective criteria for evaluation of mixing (K) factors between 1 and 10 meters of individual contaminant spaces or in an entire room. Small, thermally generated plumes were able to move with little dilution through spaces of 1 meter and more. Concentrations of acrolein (107028) and formaldehyde (50000) in side stream cigarette smoke were tens to hundreds of times the acceptable limits. Between one and two thirds of these concentrations were associated with the particulate phase of the smoke, suggesting that aldehydes may be deposited in the respiratory system rather than absorbed in the nose and trachea, perhaps providing a pathway for bronchial cancer. Concentrations of irritants in contaminant streams sufficient to cause eye or nose/throat irritation may be measured by sampling close enough to the source to trap the entire contaminant stream. No general method was devised to determine the area and velocity of contaminant streams when irritants were in the form of vapors without associated particulate to create visibility. The author concludes that the K-factor method of defining contaminant concentrations was inappropriate when strongly mixing air currents are not present.

NIOSH-Grant; Air-quality-monitoring; Air-sampling-techniques; Environmental-contamination; Environmental-pollution; Aerosol-sampling; Measurement-equipment

Environmental Health University of Cincinnati 3223 Eden Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45267

107-02-8; 50-00-0

19880101

Final Grant Report

72423

Grant

1988

PB88-248406

A03

Grant-Number-R01-OH-000755

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

OH

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio