title: Exposure profiles, seasonal variation and health risk assessment of BTEX in indoor air of homes at different microenvironments of a terai province of northern India.
abstract: BTEX are known for their ability to deteriorate human health. A monitoring study was conducted at Gorakhpur, for a span of one year. BTEX were sampled by drawing air through activated charcoal tubes, using a low flow SKC model 220 pump. Samples were extracted with CS2followed by subjecting the aromatic fraction to GC-FID. The mean concentration of BTEX was highest at agricultural (54.3 μg m-3) followed by industrial (18.2 μg m-3), roadside (12.3 μg m-3) and residential site (6.1 μg m-3). Toluene levels were higher than benzene at all the sites except agricultural site, where benzene concentration exceeded toluene. Seasonal variation showed highest BTEX concentration during winters (32.56 μg m-3) followed by monsoon (19.90 μg m-3) and summers (14.44 μg m-3). At each site, BTEX levels increased with decrease in temperature. Benzene and toluene levels were plotted against indoor temperature, which revealed a significant linear correlation (p < 0.001) for each plot. BTEX concentrations were compared between different sites using Student's t and Mann Whitney U tests. Value of integrated lifetime cancer risk (ILTCR) was higher than 10-6for benzene at all the sites, while for ethylbenzene, it was only higher at agricultural site. Cumulative hazard index (HI) was lower than 1.0 at all the sites.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Research Lab, Department of Chemistry, St. Andrew's College, Gorakhpur, India. Electronic address: amitmasih10@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Masih
authors.affiliation: Environmental Research Lab, Department of Chemistry, St. Andrew's College, Gorakhpur, India.
authors.forename: Anurag S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lall
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Dr. BhimRaoAmbedkar University, Agra, India.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taneja
authors.affiliation: Environment Response Team, United States Environment Protection Agency, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Singhvi
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D001554:Benzene / Q000032:analysis; D001555:Benzene Derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006798:Housing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012621:Seasons; D014050:Toluene / Q000032:analysis; D014992:Xylenes / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D001555:Benzene Derivatives; D014992:Xylenes; D014050:Toluene; D001554:Benzene; C004912:ethylbenzene
keywords: BTEX; HQ; ILTCR; Indoor air; Microenvironments; Terai region