Abstract |
The last two decades there has been increased interest in the scientific community about the problem of indoor air pollution. The concentration of many pollutants indoors is much higher than the concentration outdoors. Characteristic pollutants of indoor environment are the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), compounds with particular persistence and toxicity. Electric appliances (e.g. transformers, fluorescent lamps), as well as building materials that contain PCBs emit, increasing the levels of their concentrations in the indoor environment. The present work includes the study of the occurrence of polychlorinated biphenyls in the atmosphere of internal spaces. The buildings that were studied are 1) a public building in the centre of Athens, 2) a company building in the centre of Athens, 3) offices in the University of Crete in Heraklion, 4) residences in the region of Heraklion. The PCBs concentrations in the atmosphere of these buildings were detected in ng/m3, concentrations much higher than outdoor. For the qualitative and quantitative determination of PCBs the technique of high-resolution gas chromatography with twin ion trap mass spectrometer (HRGC-ITMS/MS) was used. Moreover this work includes the study of the PCBs distribution between gas and particulate phase, the estimation of possible sources, the comparison between indoor and outdoor levels, as well as the comparison with similar studies.
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