A review of potentially harmful chemicals in crumb rubber used in synthetic football pitches.

The impacts of plastic products on air pollution - A simulation study for advanced life cycle inventories of plastics covering secondary microplastic production

The ISO 16000 standard series provide guidelines for emission measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from building materials. However, polymer-based consumer products such as toys may also release harmful substances into indoor air. In such cases, the existing standard procedures are unsuitable for official control laboratories due to high costs for large emission testing chambers. This paper aims at developing and comparing alternative and more competitive methods for the emission testing of consumer products. The influence of the emission chamber size was investigated as smaller chambers are more suited to the common size of consumer products and may help to reduce the costs of testing. Comparison of the performance of a 203 l emission test chamber with two smaller chambers with the capacity of 24 l and 44 ml, respectively, was carried out by using a polyurethane reference material spiked with 14 VOCs during the course of 28 days. The area-specific emission rates obtained in the small chambers were always similar to those of the 203 l reference chamber after a few hours. This implies that smaller chambers can provide at least useful numbers on the extent of polymer-based consumer product emissions into indoor air, thereby supporting meaningful exposure assessments.

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Emissions of volatile organic compounds from polymer-based consumer products: Comparison of three emission chamber sizes.

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Paving the Way for a Green Transition in the Design of Sensors and Biosensors for the Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Plastic costume masks regularly exhibit unpleasant odors that may be associated with the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Upon inhalation, VOCs might adversely affect the wearer's health if the exposure exceeds regulatory threshold values. The VOCs emitted from a selection of costume masks (n = 12) were characterized semiquantitatively with a screening method based on GC/MS measurements in dynamic headspace sampling mode. Furthermore, odors associated with the masks were evaluated by a sensory panel. Two masks emitted particularly high concentrations of ethylbenzene, xylenes, and cyclohexanone and exhibited the most intense and unpleasant odors, which were described as rubber-like, pungent, and leather-like. To simulate and assess the inhalation exposures for wearers of these masks, an innovative experimental setup based on a doll's head was developed, with sampling of emitted volatiles on adsorption material and subsequent analysis by thermal desorption-GC/MS. The measured inhalable concentrations of cyclohexanone exceeded the derived no-effect level (DNEL) for systemic effects on the general population over several hours of wearing, and also after repeated use. Importantly, the cyclohexanone DNEL was reevaluated in relation to a recent study on inhalation toxicity in rodents and was found to be significantly lower (1.4 mg·m-3) compared to the industry-derived values (10-20 mg·m-3), thus aggravating the health risks associated with inhalation exposure from some of the costume masks tested. Finally, a comparison of the inhalable concentrations derived from the simulated exposure assessments with those derived from measurements in miniaturized emission test chambers indicate that microchambers represent a useful tool for high-throughput analysis. The influences of temperature and inhalation/exhalation flow rates on VOC exposures were also studied.

Exposure Assessment of Toxicologically Relevant Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted from Polymer-Based Costume Masks

The development of consumerism led to an increase in toy production. Such consumer products may contain non-intentionally added toxic substances that can emit from the product and may be inhaled by the consumer. Little data is available on the inhalation exposure of humans to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from consumer products, so a reliable exposure assessment is needed. Only the emission chamber technique developed for building material emissions can provide solid estimations as it allows the products to be studied under real room conditions. This paper proposes a strategy to interpret emission experiment results from consumer products and assess the corresponding potential risk. It focuses on 14 common VOCs. The identification of the polymer type of 41 plastic articles was first performed by pyrolysis coupled online to gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (pyr-GC/MS). Their VOC profile was also determined by Dynamic Headspace-GC/MS (DHS-GC/MS). Softer polymers caused higher and broader emission profiles. Four specific toy samples were selected to be studied in a 203 l emission chamber and their emissions were compared to a reference material. A rapid decrease in the emissions was observed for each product and VOC. Based on these emission curves over time, the corresponding indoor air concentration could be calculated for the target VOCs for short-term or long-term exposures. The indoor air levels obtained were at least 35 times lower than the levels according to conventional indoor air guidelines. Guideline values were only exceeded using very conservative exposure scenarios.

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Emissions of VOCs From Polymer-Based Consumer Products: From Emission Data of Real Samples to the Assessment of Inhalation Exposure.

Formaldehyde is considered as carcinogenic and is emitted from particleboards and plywood used in toy manufacturing. Currently, the flask method is frequently used in Europe for market surveillance purposes to assess formaldehyde release from toys, but its concordance to levels measured in emission test chambers is poor. Surveillance laboratories are unable to afford laborious and expensive emission chamber testing to comply with a new amendment of the European Toy Directive; they need an alternative method that can provide reliable results. Therefore, the application of miniaturised emission test chambers was tested. Comparisons between a 1 m3 emission test chamber and 44 mL microchambers with two particleboards over 28 days and between a 24 L desiccator chamber and the microchambers with three puzzle samples over 10 days resulted in a correlation coefficient r2 of 0.834 for formaldehyde at steady state. The correlation between the results obtained in microchambers vs. flask showed a high variability over 10 samples (r2: 0.145), thereby demonstrating the error-proneness of the flask method in comparison to methods carried out under ambient parameters. An exposure assessment was also performed for three toy puzzles: indoor formaldehyde concentrations caused by puzzles were not negligible (up to 8 µg/m3), especially when more conservative exposure scenarios were considered.

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Formaldehyde Emissions from Wooden Toys: Comparison of Different Measurement Methods and Assessment of Exposure.

Selection of gas standards, gas chromatography column and adsorbents for the measurement of very volatile organic compounds (C1-C6) in indoor air.

A standardised method for the analysis of very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs) in indoor air is still missing. This study evaluates the use of Carbograph 5TD as adsorbent for 60...

Morgane Even

Papers

Emissions of volatile organic compounds from polymer-based consumer products: Comparison of three emission chamber sizes.

Emissions of VOCs From Polymer-Based Consumer Products: From Emission Data of Real Samples to the Assessment of Inhalation Exposure.

Formaldehyde Emissions from Wooden Toys: Comparison of Different Measurement Methods and Assessment of Exposure.

Selection of gas standards, gas chromatography column and adsorbents for the measurement of very volatile organic compounds (C1-C6) in indoor air.

On the use of Carbograph 5TD as adsorbent for sampling VVOCs: Validation of an analytical method