Jingjing Pei

Background High-level exposure to indoor air pollutants (IAPs), including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), has substantially contributed to the burden of disease in China over the past two decades. However, the contributions of different indoor VOC sources to the associated health burden remain poorly understood. Objective This study aimed to estimate source-specific residential VOC concentrations and the associated burden of disease to identify and rank the major sources of indoor VOCs in China. Methods Indoor concentrations of 39 VOCs were repeatedly measured across seasons from 2016 to 2017 in 249 residences from nine Chinese cities. We developed a novel integrated approach that combined positive matrix factorization (PMF) for source apportionment of indoor VOCs with the proportional population attributable fraction (PAF) method to quantify source-specific health burden. Results In 2017, the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to residential VOCs across nine Chinese provinces reached 134.2 (95% UI: 65.7–225.0) per 100,000, resulting in financial costs of 28.1 (13.8–47.1) billion CNY. The PMF analysis identified six indoor sources and three outdoor sources contributing to indoor VOC concentrations. The three leading sources, which were interpreted as engineered wood products and furniture, outdoor vehicle exhaust, and cooking and indoor combustion, accounted for 42.7%, 25.9%, and 11.0% of the VOC-attributable DALYs, respectively. Significance This study prioritized controlling engineered wood products and furniture to mitigate indoor VOC health burdens in China, and proposed a generalizable health-based approach to rank sources of other IAPs. Impact This is the first study to rank the sources of indoor residential VOCs based on attributable health burden. The findings provide quantitative evidence to prioritize control strategies targeting the dominant residential VOC sources in China, such as engineered wood products and furniture. The proposed approach can be extended to other IAPs and may support future cost-benefit analyses of source-specific intervention strategies.

High-level exposure to indoor air pollutants (IAPs), including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), has substantially contributed to the burden of disease in China over the past two decades. However, the source contributions to the indoor VOC-related health burden remain unknown. This study utilized a novel approach based on positive matrix factorization (PMF) of indoor multipollutant data to estimate the source-specific residential VOC concentrations and associated burden of disease. Indoor concentrations of 39 VOCs were collected repeatedly in different seasons from 2016 to 2017 in 249 residences across nine cities in China. In 2017, the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to residential VOC exposure across nine provinces in China reached 134.2 (95% UI: 65.7 – 225.0) per 100,000, resulting in financial costs of 28.1 (13.8 – 47.1) billion CNY. Contributions to indoor VOC concentrations from six indoor sources and three outdoor sources were derived by PMF. The top three sources, i.e., wood building materials and furniture, outdoor vehicle exhaust, and cooking and indoor combustion, accounted for 42.7%, 25.9%, and 11.0% of the VOC-attributable DALYs, which suggests prioritizing controlling these sources in China. This approach can be extended to other IAPs and provide fundamental data for future cost-benefit analysis of source control interventions. TOC Art: Synopsis: This novel method leverages multi-seasonal and multi-room residential VOC measurements to identify emission sources, quantify source-specific exposure concentrations, and estimate source-specific health burden, thus prioritizing the sources needing control.

The aircraft cabin provides a unique indoor environment compared to other building environments. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) is widely found in cabins and has clear adverse health impacts. This study investigated the PCE pollution characteristics in 56 aircraft cabins using on-flight Tenax-TA tube sampling and GC-MS analysis. PCE was detected at a high rate of 79% in sampled flights, indicating widespread contamination within the cabins. The mean concentration of PCE was 10.12 μg/m³, exceeding the 2.06 μg/m³ observed in residences in a previous study. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was used to identify potential sources of PCE in cabins. Six categories of sources were determined, including in-cabin cleaning products, aircraft cleaning/maintenance, cabin interior material, aircraft and vehicle exhaust, non-fuel oil and ozone-associated chemical reactions. The biggest PCE source in cabins was attributed to in-cabin cleaning products (45.30%), followed by cabin interior materials (24.90%), and aircraft cleaning/maintenance (19.82%). The findings of this study are beneficial to improving aircraft cabin air quality, reducing harmful pollutant exposure for cabin crew and passengers.