Kim 2002 - “Levels and Sources of Personal Inhalation Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds”

Kim, Young Min; Harrad, Stuart; Harrison, Roy M.
“Levels and Sources of Personal Inhalation Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds” Environmental Science and Technology
December 15, 2002; v.36,n.24; pp.5405-5410
On the Web
Relevance: medium

Personal exposures to VOCs of 12 urban dwellers (Birmingham, UK) were measured over 5-10 days.  Exposure in the home contributed 50-80% of overall individual exposure to 2 main VOCs, mostly due to the large amount of time spent at home.  Smoking, vehicle use, and heating also contributed noticeably to personal exposure to VOCs.

While concentration of VOCs in automobiles contributes less to total VOC exposure than do homes, with a lower concentration, this result is due to the small fraction of time that subjects spent in automobiles.

The authors did factor analysis to evaluate the contribution of tobacco smoke, vehicles, and cooking to VOC exposure, but I am not sure how to interpret their results.

(See Kim et al. (2001) “Concentrations and Sources of VOCs in Urban Domestic and Public Microenvironments”.)  Also see the Supporting Information for interesting tables.

Note the many caveats to this study including small sample size, short measurement period (12 hours per day, not 24), and potential seasonal effects.