The maximum cumulative ratio (MCR) method allows the categorisation of mixtures according to whether the mixture is of concern for toxicity and if so whether this is driven by one substance or multiple substances. The aim of the present study was to explore, by application of the MCR approach, whether health risks due to indoor air pollution are dominated by one substance or are due to concurrent exposure to various substances. Analysis was undertaken on monitoring data of four European indoor studies (giving five datasets), involving 1800 records of indoor air or personal exposure. Application of the MCR methodology requires knowledge of the concentrations of chemicals in a mixture together with health-based reference values for those chemicals. For this evaluation, single substance health-based reference values (RVs) were selected through a structured review process. The MCR analysis found high variability in the proportion of samples of concern for mixture toxicity. The fraction of samples in these groups of concern varied from 2% (Flemish schools) to 77% (EXPOLIS, Basel, indoor), the variation being due not only to the variation in indoor air contaminant levels across the studies but also to other factors such as differences in number and type of substances monitored, analytical performance, and choice of RVs. However, in 4 out of the 5 datasets, a considerable proportion of cases were found where a chemical-by-chemical approach failed to identify the need for the investigation of combined risk assessment. Although the MCR methodology applied in the current study provides no consideration of commonality of endpoints, it provides a tool for discrimination between those mixtures requiring further combined risk assessment and those for which a single-substance assessment is sufficient.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.01.083 | DOI Listing |
Chemosphere
December 2024
Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region, FISABIO-Public Health, 21, Av. Catalunya, 46020, Valencia, Spain.
This work aims to establish a strategy to comprehensively assess the indoor air quality in schools including the analysis of chemical pollutants, bio-aerosols like fungi, bacteria and respiratory viruses and the identification of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds applying non-targeted approaches. For this, a pilot study was performed in four primary schools from Spain, located in different urban and rural areas during different seasons. Common indoor pollutants, like CO NO, O, CO, particulate matter (PM, PM), ultrafine particles (UFP), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), and formaldehyde (HCHO), were assessed in terms of maximum recommended levels, daily variations, seasonality, and school location.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Chem Soc
December 2024
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Air-conditioning systems, composed mainly of humidity control and heat reallocation units, play a pivotal role in upholding superior air quality and human well-being across diverse environments ranging from international space stations and pharmacies to granaries and cultural relic preservation sites, and to commercial and residential buildings. The adoption of sorbent water as the working pair and low-grade renewable or waste heat in adsorption-driven air-conditioning presents a state-of-the-art solution, notably for its energy efficiency and eco-friendliness vis-à-vis conventional electricity-driven vapor compression cycles. Here, we introduce a rational π-extension strategy to engineer an ultrarobust and highly porous zirconium metal-organic framework (Zr-MOF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Process Impacts
December 2024
Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Canada.
Proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) is often employed to characterize gas-phase compounds in both indoor and outdoor environments. PTR-MS measurements are usually made without upstream chromatographic separation, so it can be challenging to differentiate between an ion of interest, its isomers, and fragmentation products from other species all detected at the same mass-to-charge ratio. These isomeric contributions and fragmentation interferences can confound the determination of accurate compound mixing ratios, the assignment of accurate chemical properties, and corresponding analyses of chemical fate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethodsX
December 2024
Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Darul Iman, Malaysia.
Determining the optimum application dosage of probiotic in biofloc system is often challenging because the microbial community seems to exert similar effects irrespective of their dosages. It is however noted that certain dosages promote higher yield in shrimp culture more effectively. Principal component analysis was adopted to identify these optimum dosages where 1-way ANOVA could not clearly identify due to the effects of microbial community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Soc Rev
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, College of Environment and Ecology, State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Department of Physics, iChEM, IKKEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has evolved significantly over fifty years into a powerful analytical technique. This review aims to achieve five main goals. (1) Providing a comprehensive history of SERS's discovery, its experimental and theoretical foundations, its connections to advances in nanoscience and plasmonics, and highlighting collective contributions of key pioneers.
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