Indoor Air Quality: Assessment of Dangerous Substances in Incense Products.

Indoor air pollution has obtained more attention in a moment where "stay at home" is a maximum repeated for the entire world. It is urgent to know the sources of pollutants indoors, to improve the indoor air quality. This study presents some results obtained for twelve incense products, used indoors, at home, and in temples, but also in spa centers or yoga gymnasiums, where the respiratory intensity is high, and the consequences on health could be more severe. The focus of this study was the gaseous emissions of different types of incense, performing a VOC screening and identifying some specific VOCs different from the usual ones, which are known or suspected to cause severe chronic health effects: carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic. Thirteen compounds were selected: benzene, toluene, styrene, naphthalene, furfural, furan, isoprene, 2-butenal, phenol, 2-furyl methyl ketone, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein. The study also indicated that incense cone type shows a higher probability of being more pollutant than incense stick type, as from the 12 products tested, four were cone type, and three of them were in the group of the four higher polluters. Benzene and formaldehyde presented worrying levels in the major part of the products, above guideline values established by the WHO. Unfortunately, there are no limit values established for indoor air for all the compounds studied, but this fact should not exempt us from taking action to alert the population to the potential dangers of using those products. From this study, acetaldehyde, acrolein, furfural, and furan emerge as compounds with levels to deserve attention.

Determination of gaseous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by a simple direct method using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

In the last decade, the development of novel analytical methodologies enabled the identification of several environmental pollutants responsible for health problems associated with indoor exposure. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the potential hazardous chemicals present in ambient air. Due to their bioaccumulation potential and carcinogenic/mutagenic effects, 16 PAHs are currently listed as priority air pollutants. The main goal of this work was to implement a new and simple method for sampling and determination of PAHs in air by using a thermal desorption (TD) technique followed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry analysis. A detailed study was carried out to optimise the experimental method in each of its phases, including (active) sampling, TD and chromatographic analysis. The results demonstrate that this approach allowed the detection and quantification of the six more volatile PAHs, namely, naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, and anthracene. Acceptable precision and good linearity over the explored range were obtained. No carry-over was observed during experimental tests and the method provided a reproducible answer. The applicability of the novel methodology was tested in real environment, namely, on the roof of a building in an urban area, in a domestic kitchen and in a collective car garage. The method enabled the identification of two PAHs in the field samples, specifically, naphthalene (two rings) and phenanthrene (three rings). With regard to PAHs sample composition, the most abundant PAH found, in the three different locations, was naphthalene, accounting for about 84-100 % of the total PAH mass detected.