Impact of Multiple HVAC Systems on Indoor Air VOC and Radon Concentrations from Vapor Intrusion During Seasonal Usage.

IF 2.5 4区 地球科学 Q3 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Atmosphere Pub Date : 2025-04-01 Epub Date: 2025-03-27 DOI:10.3390/atmos16040378
John H Zimmerman, Alan Williams, Brian Schumacher, Christopher Lutes, Rohit Warrier, Brian Cosky, Ben Thompson, Chase W Holton, Kate Bronstein
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Subsurface contamination can migrate upward into overlying buildings, exposing the buildings' inhabitants to contaminants that can cause detrimental health effects. This phenomenon is known as vapor intrusion (VI). When evaluating a building for VI, one must understand that seasonal and short-term variability are significant factors in determining the reasonable maximum exposure (RME) to the occupants. RME is a semi-quantitative term that refers to the lower portion of the high end of the exposure distribution-conceptually, above the 90th percentile exposure but less than the 98th percentile exposure. Samples were collected between December 2020 and April 2022 at six non-residential commercial buildings in Fairbanks, Alaska. The types of samples collected included indoor air (IA); outdoor air; subslab soil gas; soil gas; indoor radon; differential pressure; indoor and outdoor temperature; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) parameters; and other environmental factors. The buildings in close proximity to the volatile organic compound (VOC) source/release points presented less variability in indoor air concentrations of trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) compared to the buildings farther down gradient in the contaminated groundwater plume. The VOC data pattern for the source area buildings shows an outdoor air temperature-dominated behavior for indoor air concentrations in the summer season. HVAC system operations had less influence on long-term indoor air concentration trends than environmental factors, which is supported by similar indoor air concentration patterns independent of location within the plume. The use of soil temperature and indoor/outdoor temperatures as indicators and tracers (I&Ts) across the plume as predictors of the sampling period could produce a good estimation of the RME for the building occupants. These results, which show the use of soil temperature and indoor/outdoor temperatures as I&Ts, will help advance investigative methods for evaluation of VI in similar settings and thereby improve the protection of human health in indoor environments.

多套暖通空调系统对季节性使用过程中挥发性有机化合物和氡浓度的影响
地下污染可以向上迁移到建筑物上,使建筑物的居民暴露在可能对健康造成有害影响的污染物中。这种现象被称为蒸汽侵入(VI)。在评估建筑物的VI时,必须了解季节性和短期变化是确定合理最大暴露(RME)给居住者的重要因素。RME是一个半定量术语,指的是暴露分布高端的较低部分——从概念上讲,高于第90百分位暴露,但低于第98百分位暴露。样本于2020年12月至2022年4月在阿拉斯加费尔班克斯的六座非住宅商业建筑中收集。采集的样品类型包括室内空气(IA);室外空气;底板土气;土壤气体;室内氡;压差;室内外温度;暖通空调(HVAC)参数;以及其他环境因素。靠近挥发性有机化合物(VOC)源/释放点的建筑物,其室内空气中三氯乙烯(TCE)和四氯乙烯(PCE)浓度的变化幅度小于受污染地下水羽流梯度较低的建筑物。源区建筑的VOC数据模式显示,夏季室内空气浓度以室外空气温度为主导。与环境因素相比,暖通空调系统运行对室内空气浓度长期趋势的影响较小,这一点得到了与羽流内位置无关的类似室内空气浓度模式的支持。利用土壤温度和室内/室外温度作为整个羽流的指标和示踪剂(I&Ts)作为采样周期的预测因子,可以很好地估计建筑物居住者的RME。这些结果表明,使用土壤温度和室内外温度作为I&Ts,将有助于推进在类似环境中评估VI的调查方法,从而改善室内环境中对人类健康的保护。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Atmosphere
Atmosphere METEOROLOGY & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES-
CiteScore
4.60
自引率
13.80%
发文量
1769
审稿时长
1 months
期刊介绍: Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433) is an international and cross-disciplinary scholarly journal of scientific studies related to the atmosphere. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, communications and short notes, and there is no restriction on the length of the papers. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research in as much detail as possible. Full experimental and/or methodical details must be provided for research articles.
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