Passive sampler derived polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in indoor andoutdoor air in Bursa, Turkey: Levels and an assessment of human exposurevia inhalation

Özet

Although polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were banned several years ago, they can still be measured in theenvironment, especially in indoors, where their concentrations tend to be higher than outdoors in some cases.The current study reports the results of a study conducted to determine concentrations of a total of 40 PCBscongeners in the living rooms and kitchens of eight different houses, and in the outdoor air of three housesduring summer and autumn in Bursa in 2014. The province of Bursa, having eighteen of organized industrialzones, indoor air pollution is of great importance. The average concentration of∑40PCBs in living rooms and thekitchen were 604 ± 210 pg/m3and 639 ± 2514 pg/m3during summer, respectively; while concentrations inautumn were 362 ± 167 pg/m3and 309 ± 93 pg/m3, respectively. The average∑40PCBs outdoor con-centrations were 303 ± 183 pg/m3and 41 ± 23 pg/m3for summer and autumn, respectively. The∑40PCBsconcentrations in summer were almost two times higher than in autumn for indoor environment. The pre-dominant PCB homologs in indoor samples were penta- (40%), tetra- (23%) and tri-CBs (17%) while they werepenta- (37%) and tetra-CBs (22%) for outdoor samples. The results of the study indicated the presence of in-tentionally and unintentionally produced PCBs. The I/O ratios suggested the indoor sites as the most importantPCBs source than outdoor sites. Finally, the measured PCB concentrations did not represent a cancer risk forhuman health for exposure via inhalation in all sampling points