Evaporative gasoline emissions and asthma symptoms.

Attached garages are known to be associated with indoor air volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This study looked at indoor exposure to VOCs presumably from evaporative emissions of gasoline. Alaskan gasoline contains 5% benzene making benzene a marker for gasoline exposure.

An investigation of the association between traffic exposure and the diagnosis of asthma in children.

This study investigated whether proximity to traffic at residence location is associated with being diagnosed with asthma as a young child. A survey of parents of children (aged 5-7) in kindergarten and first-grade in 13 schools was completed in Anchorage, Alaska, and Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping was used to obtain an exposure measure based on traffic density within 100 m of the cross streets closest to the child's residence. Using the range of observed exposure values, a score of low, medium or high traffic exposure was assigned to each child.

PM10 and asthma medication in schoolchildren.

The authors found that the use of asthma medication among elementary schoolchildren was associated with particulate pollution (particulate matter < 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter [PM10]) in a locale where PM10 consisted primarily of coarse fraction material derived from road sanding and reentrained volcanic ash. School nurses' records in 12 neighborhood schools located close to an ambient air monitoring station were abstracted, and the numbers of oral and inhaled doses of asthma medication given daily over a period of 2.5 yr were calculated.

Winter indoor air pollution in Alaska: identifying a myth.

The benzene and toluene levels inside three homes with attached garages were measured for 12 consecutive weeks during the winter months in Fairbanks, Alaska (Latitude 64.5 degrees N). Results for air samples collected over 12 h for the homes showed indoor benzene mixing ratios ranging from 1.

Use of biomarkers in an indoor air study: lack of correlation between aromatic VOCs with respective urinary biomarkers.

The benzene and toluene levels inside of eight homes with attached garages were measured during July 1998 in Fairbanks, Alaska. A thermal desorption tube method and charcoal tube method were used to collect and analyze samples (thermal desorption tube method %RDS = 1.9 for n = 6; charcoal tube method %RDS = 6.