title: [Indoor air guideline values for saturated acyclic aliphatic C4-C11 aldehydes].
abstract: To protect public health the German Working Group on Indoor Guidelines of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the States' Health Authorities is issuing indoor air guideline values. For health evaluation of indoor air n- and i-alkanals with at least 4 C atoms no appropriate human data is available. Based on animal studies irritation has been identified as crucial adverse effect following inhalative exposure to C4 to C6 alkanals. However, sufficient data is available for C4 alkanals only. Inflammation of the nose epithelium followed by non-neoplastic and degenerative lesions has been seen in inhalative subchronic studies with butanal and chronic studies with i-butanal. The lowest adverse effect level for continuous exposure is assessed by the Working Group as 16 mg butanal per cubic meter. By applying an interspecies factor of 1 and an intraspecies factor of 10 a so-called health hazard value of 2 mg butanal/m3 indoor air is obtained. Regarding the few and limited data on inhalation toxicity of the higher homologues concerning irritation a health hazard value of 2 mg/m3 indoor air for the total of acyclic C4 to C11 alkanals is recommended. Elevated C4 to C11 alkanal indoor air concentrations annoy by odour. To prevent from unpleasant odour a so-called health precaution value of 0.1 mg acyclic C4 to C11 alkanals/m3 indoor is recommended.
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards*; D000447:Aldehydes / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000592:standards*; D005858:Germany; D017408:Guidelines as Topic
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D000447:Aldehydes