[Investigation of key indoor air pollutants in residence in part of the cities in China].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate indoor air pollution levels of total volatile organic compound (TVOC), benzene, toluene, xylene, formaldehyde, ammonia and radon in residence houses in part of the cities in China.


METHODS
The residence houses decorated within 12 months were selected simple randomly. Indoor air pollutants monitoring and epidemiology investigation were carried out from May 2002 to November 2004. The location of sampling was in respiratory area. The time of sampling were 30 minutes. Tenax TA adsorption/thermal desorption/ capillary gas chromatography was used to measure the concentration of TVOC, benzene, toluene and xylene. 4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1, 2, 4-triazole (AHMT) spectrophotometry was used to measure the concentration of formaldehyde. Nessler's reagent colorimetric method was used to measure the concentration of ammonia. The alpha-track detector method was used for radon measurement.


RESULTS
The concentration of formaldehyde, ammonia, TVOC were (0.16 +/- 0.16), (0.12 +/- 0.15) and (2.18 +/- 12.94) mg/m3 respectively. The concentrations of benzene, toluene and xylenewere (124.04 +/- 272.60), (258 .90 +/- 672.98) and (189.68 +/- 561.16) microg/m3 respectively. The arithmetical and geometric average of radon were 43.8 +/- 37.7 and 37.4 Bqm(-3) respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, xylene and TVOC were the most important pollutants in decorated houses. The radon measurement results of 26 cities may reflect the indoor radon concentration, the rate of over standard and the pollution tendency in China. The investigation of radon pollution could be the largest scale and has the most important influence in recent 20 years in China.
Xu
Dongqun
D
Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety, China CDC, Beijing 100021, China.
Shang
Bing
B
Cao
Zhaojin
Z
D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D001554:Benzene / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005557:Formaldehyde / Q000032:analysis*; D014050:Toluene / Q000032:analysis; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; D005557:Formaldehyde; D014050:Toluene; D001554:Benzene