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Relationships between estimated flame retardant emissions and levels in indoor air and house dust
Author(s) -
Liagkouridis I.,
Cequier E.,
Lazarov B.,
Palm Cousins A.,
Thomsen C.,
Stranger M.,
Cousins I. T.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12332
Subject(s) - environmental science , environmental chemistry , fire retardant , atmospheric sciences , environmental engineering , meteorology , chemistry , materials science , composite material , physics
A significant number of consumer goods and building materials can act as emission sources of flame retardants ( FR s) in the indoor environment. We investigate the relationship between the emission source strength and the levels of 19 brominated flame retardants ( BFR s) and seven organophosphate flame retardants ( OPFR s) in air and dust collected in 38 indoor microenvironments in Norway. We use modeling methods to back‐calculate emission rates from indoor air and dust measurements and identify possible indications of an emission‐to‐dust pathway. Experimentally based emission estimates provide a satisfactory indication of the relative emission strength of indoor sources. Modeling results indicate an up to two orders of magnitude enhanced emission strength for OPFR s (median emission rates of 0.083 and 0.41 μg h −1 for air‐based and dust‐based estimates) compared to BFR s (0.52 and 0.37 ng h −1 median emission rates). A consistent emission‐to‐dust signal, defined as higher dust‐based than air‐based emission estimates, was identified for four of the seven OPFR s, but only for one of the 19 BFR s. It is concluded, however, that uncertainty in model input parameters could potentially lead to the false identification of an emission‐to‐dust signal.