The indoor environment is a potentially dominant source of exposure for polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This thesis describes a study on
levels, sources, emissions, and fate of PBDEs and PCBs indoors. PBDEs and PCBs air levels in
20 indoor environments in Toronto were sampled and measured. The geometric means of PBDE
(Σ10BDE) and PCB (Σ35PCB) concentrations were 0.072 and 7.2 ng m-3 respectively. Statistical
analysis on chemical profiles distinguished the chemical sources in the 20 environments. A
multimedia indoor environmental model was applied on two test rooms. Estimated PBDE and
PCB emission rates were 5.4-550 ng h-1 and 280-5870 ng h-1 respectively. Particle movement dominates within-room transport processes, and dust removal and air advection are the main chemical loss processes. Temperature, particle concentration and deposition velocity, and air
exchange rate are the most influential parameters, which can alter source or sink behaviors of household products for the chemicals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/17239 |
| Date | 26 February 2009 |
| Creators | Zhang, Xianming |
| Contributors | Diamond, Miriam L. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 2136472 bytes, application/pdf |
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