Publication
Title
Occurrence and fate of organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers in indoor air and dust of Nepal : implication for human exposure
Author
Abstract
The present study was carried out in Nepal, a landlocked country located between world's two most populous countries i.e. India and China. In this study, the occurrence, profiles, spatial distributions and fate of eight organophosphate ester flame retardants (OPFRs) were investigated in indoor air and house dust. Overall, the concentrations of EOPFR were in the range of 153-12100 ng/g (median732 ng/g) and 0.32-64 ng/m(3) (median 5.2 ng/m(3)) in house dust and indoor air, respectively. The sources of high OPFR in the indoor environment could be from locally used wide variety of consumer products and building materials in Nepalese houses. Significantly, high concentration of tri-cresyl phosphate (TMPP) was found both in air and dust, while tri (2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP) had the highest concentration in air samples. It might be due to fact that the high concentrations of TMPP are related to intense traffic and/or nearby airports. On the other hand, significantly high concentration of TEHP could be due to anthropogenic activities. Only TEHP showed positive correlation between indoor air and house dust (Rho = 0.517, p < 0.01), while rest of compounds were either less correlated or not correlated at all. The estimated human exposure to EOPFR via different pathway of intake suggested dermal absorption via indoor dust as major pathway of human exposure to both children and adult population. However, other pathways of OPFR intake such as dietary or dermal absorption via soil may still be significant in case of Nepal. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Environmental pollution. - London, 1987, currens
Publication
London : 2017
ISSN
0269-7491 [print]
1873-6424 [online]
DOI
10.1016/J.ENVPOL.2017.06.089
Volume/pages
229 (2017) , p. 668-678
ISI
000410010200070
Pubmed ID
28704803
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.10.2017
Last edited 09.10.2023
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