Determination of Selected Volatile Organic Compounds in an Indoor Environment

Abstract

Evaluation of the quality of indoor air for 13 dwellings in the Tricity area Gdansk, Sopot, and Gdynia of Poland was carried out by measuring the con centrations of selected volatile organic compounds: benzene, toluene, butyl acetate, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, styrene and m-dichlorobenzene. Two differ ent techniques were used for the isolation and preconcentration of analytes from air samples: a passive method employing a home-made permeation-type passive sampler, and a dynamic method based on a sorption tube. In both cases activated charcoal was used as a sorption medium (packing of traps). It was found that for the majority of the examined analytes the mandated values of maximum allowable concentrations were not exceeded, and that benzene was not detected in any of the investigated dwellings. No significant differ ences were observed between the daily concentrations (as determined by the dynamic method) and the time-weighted average concentrations (determined by the passive method).