Mishra 2014_Volatile Organic Compounds-Characteristics, distribution and...

6                                                   N. Mishra et al. / Atmospheric Environment xxx (2014) 1e7


results of it cannot be used directly for source contribution. For e.g.              (iii) What measures can be taken with respect to the traffic
29% of the data variance was explained by the first factor i.e. out-                        impact?
door traffic emissions in indoor VOC, but that doesn't mean that it
will have a comparable contribution to the indoor VOC concen-                          The outdoor traffic was found to have very negligible contri-
tration. High variance was due to the big differences in the con-                  bution (2%) in indoor VOCs concentrations but the contribution of
centration values of the VOCs associated with factor 1.                            70% on outdoor was from traffic related sources, so providing drop
    Therefore, the results of PCA were subjected to a receptor                     off/pick up area as far as possible from buildings and stopping the
modelling approach Absolute Principal Component Scores (APCS)                      engine of the vehicles while waiting can improve the situation
that is based on multiple linear regressions which gives the quan-                 outdoors. This is of importance, considering that children do spend
titative estimates of source contributions and profiles associated                  a lot of time on outdoor school activities. When they are active, the
with each factor by calculating absolute principal component                       inhalation rate increases and thus pollutant intakes.
scores and then regressing the total VOCs concentrations on these
scores (Thurston and Spengler, 1985).                                              Acknowledgements

3.5. Source contribution                                                               This work was supported by the Australian Research Council
                                                                                   (ARC), Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) and
    The mass contribution of each source to the total ambient VOCs                 Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE)
concentration in indoor and outdoor air was estimated as shown in                  through Linkage Grant LP0990134. Our particular thanks go to R.
Fig. 4. It was found that 41% of indoor VOCs concentrations in                     Fletcher (DTMR) and B. Robertson (DETE) for their vision regarding
schools were attributed to the cleaning products followed by air                   the importance of this work. We would also like to thank all
fresheners (23%) and art and craft activities (21%) while the rest                 members of the UPTECH project, including Prof G. Marks, Dr P.
were caused by personal care products (5%), (most likely sunscreen,                Robinson, Prof K. Mengersen, Prof Z. Ristovski, Dr M. Mazaheri, Dr C.
body powder/lotion, shampoo, hair oil), decorating materials and                   He, Dr G. Johnson, Dr R. Jayaratne, Dr S. Low Choy, Prof G. Williams,
computers, printers (5%), offgasing of building materials and sta-                 W. Ezz, F. Salimi, L. Crilley, S. Clifford, M. Mokhtar, R. Laiman, L. Guo,
tioneries (3%) and outdoor traffic emissions (2%). The highest                      Prof C. Duchaine, Dr H. Salonen, Dr X. Ling, Dr J. Davies, Dr L.
contribution of cleaning products and air fresheners was likely due                Leontjew Toms, F. Fuoco, Dr A. Cortes, Dr B. Toelle, A. Quinones and
to the fact cleaning of the classrooms and materials inside is the                 P. Kidd for their contribution to this work. We thank former ILAQH,
important and regular (twice a day) activity in schools that aims to               QUT members Dr M. Falk, Dr F. Fatokun, Dr J. Mejia and Dr D. Keogh
promote hygiene and preserving materials. The level of limonene                    for their contributions at the early stage of the project. Thanks also
was found below the reference value of 450 mg/m3 (JRC, 2005) for                   to R. Appleby and C. Labbe for their administrative assistance and
schools, therefore the cleaning products themselves are not ex-                    Dr. Adrian Friend for his support for APCS analysis.
pected to be a significant health risk. However, secondary organic
aerosols may be formed by the reaction of limonene, with the
                                                                                   Appendix A. Supplementary data
hazard they create unknown.
    About 70% of outdoor VOCs concentrations were attributed to
                                                                                      Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://
traffic i.e petrol vehicle exhaust and fuel evaporation. Other sources
                                                                                   dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.10.052.
such as industrial source, solvent usage and photochemical process
contributed 26%, <1% and 3% respectively. (Guo et al., 2004) also
found the highest contribution from vehicle emissions and gasoline                 References
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    Please cite this article in press as: Mishra, N., et al., Volatile Organic Compounds: Characteristics, distribution and sources in urban schools,
    Atmospheric Environment (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.10.052