Predicting personal exposure of Windsor, Ontario residents to volatile organic compounds using indoor measurements and survey data

As part of a multi-year personal exposure monitoring campaign, we collected personal, indoor, and outdoor levels of 188 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2005, data were obtained for 48 non-smoking adults from Windsor, Ontario in order to assess their exposure to VOCs based on their daily routines and characteristics of their homes. During the 8-week winter and summer sampling sessions, five repeated 24-h measurements were obtained for each home. This paper focuses on the analysis of 18 VOCs: 11 have been declared toxic as defined under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, [1999. Statutes of Canada. Act assented to September 14, 1999. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer. Available at Canada Gazette (Part III) 22(3): (Chapter 33). http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partIII/1999/ g3-02203.pdf], and seven are commonly found in household and personal care products. Results of mixed effects models indicate that personal exposure to these VOCs can be largely predicted by indoor concentrations, with models including indoor concentrations found to have an r2 value for the fixed effects ranging from 58.4% to 87.2% for the CEPA toxic VOCs and from 41.7% to 90.1% for the commonly found VOCs. Given that people spend the majority of their time inside their home, characteristics of the home such as air exchange rates, type of garage, and type of stove have a greater potential to impact personal exposures.