PMID- 30818198 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20190617 LR - 20190617 IS - 1879-1298 (Electronic) IS - 0045-6535 (Linking) VI - 224 DP - 2019 Jun TI - Exposure and risk assessment of volatile organic compounds and airborne phthalates in Singapore's Child Care Centers. PG - 85-92 LID - S0045-6535(19)30344-3 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.02.120 [doi] AB - Infants and children under 6 years old spend most of daily time in Child Care Centers (CCCs), especially in the tropical regions like Singapore. Environmental exposure and associated risk during this early critical developmental stage is of great public concern. In this study, seven representative volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and five typical phthalates were analyzed in the indoor and outdoor air samples collected from 32 Singapore CCCs. The median of total VOC and phthalate concentration in indoor air was 19.03 and 5.41 mug m(-3); respectively. For both indoors and outdoors environment, benzene, toluene and xylene were the dominant VOC contributors (more than 68%). For indoor air phthalates, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and di-butyl phthalate (DBP) accounts for 60-76%. The level of both VOCs and phthalates in indoor environment was significantly higher than that in outdoor, with an average indoor/outdoor ratio of 1.24 and 1.45; respectively. A strong correlation (r > 0.50, p < 0.05) was observed between indoor and outdoor air compounds. VOC and phthalate levels have no significant difference between CCCs with split-unit and centrally ventilated air conditioners. Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate exposure uncertainty and variability for the risk assessment. Overall, the concentrations of VOC were below the healthy reference values from either EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) or Singapore guideline. However, similar to other countries' report, benzene, DBP, ethylbenzene and naphthalene were at levels that could exceed the stringent standards such as Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) cancer and reproductive health-based benchmarks. CI - Copyright (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Jia, Shenglan AU - Jia S AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore. FAU - Sankaran, Gayatri AU - Sankaran G AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Wang, Bei AU - Wang B AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore. FAU - Shang, Hongtao AU - Shang H AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore. FAU - Tan, Sze Tat AU - Tan ST AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Yap, Hooi Ming AU - Yap HM AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Shen, Joanna AU - Shen J AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Gutierrez, Ramona Alikiiteaga AU - Gutierrez RA AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Fang, Wenjuan AU - Fang W AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore. FAU - Liu, Min AU - Liu M AD - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore. FAU - Chang, Victor Wei-Chung AU - Chang VW AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore; Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, 23 College Walk, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia. Electronic address: victor.chang@monash.edu. FAU - Ng, Lee Ching AU - Ng LC AD - Environmental Health Institute NEA, 11 Biopolis Way, Singapore, 138667, Singapore. FAU - Fang, Mingliang AU - Fang M AD - Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore; School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore; Analytics Cluster, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore. Electronic address: mlfang@ntu.edu.sg. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20190221 PL - England TA - Chemosphere JT - Chemosphere JID - 0320657 RN - 0 (Air Pollutants) RN - 0 (Benzene Derivatives) RN - 0 (Phthalic Acids) RN - 0 (Volatile Organic Compounds) RN - 0 (Xylenes) RN - 3FPU23BG52 (Toluene) RN - 6O7F7IX66E (phthalic acid) RN - J64922108F (Benzene) RN - L5I45M5G0O (ethylbenzene) SB - IM MH - *Air Pollutants/analysis MH - Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis MH - Benzene/analysis MH - Benzene Derivatives/analysis MH - *Child Day Care Centers MH - Child, Preschool MH - Environmental Exposure/analysis MH - Humans MH - Infant MH - *Phthalic Acids MH - Risk Assessment MH - Singapore MH - Toluene MH - *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis MH - Xylenes/analysis OTO - NOTNLM OT - Child care centre OT - Monte Carlo OT - Phthalates OT - Risk assessment OT - VOCs EDAT- 2019/03/01 06:00 MHDA- 2019/06/18 06:00 CRDT- 2019/03/01 06:00 PHST- 2018/11/27 00:00 [received] PHST- 2019/02/16 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2019/02/18 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2019/03/01 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2019/06/18 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2019/03/01 06:00 [entrez] AID - S0045-6535(19)30344-3 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.02.120 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Chemosphere. 2019 Jun;224:85-92. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.02.120. Epub 2019 Feb 21.