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Characterization and health risk assessment of organophosphate esters in indoor dust from urban and rural domestic house and college dormitory in Nanjing, China

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Abstract

Indoor dust is an important route of exposure for organophosphate esters (OPEs), which are associated with adverse health effects. In the present study, the pollution occurrence and potential health risks of 13 OPEs in indoor dust from urban homes, college dormitories, and rural homes in Nanjing were investigated. Most OPEs were detected in the tested samples. College dormitories dust samples showed significantly higher OPEs concentrations (132.31–1.61 × 103 ng/g), followed by that in urban homes (31.42–49.84 ng/g) and rural homes (51.19–309.75 ng/g). The Mann-Whitney U test found no significant difference in the total concentrations of OPEs except for some individual OPEs between urban and rural homes. Tris (2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCPP) was the most abundant compound in all tested areas. Spearman correlation coefficients and principal component analysis indicated that OPEs might originate from different sources in three microenvironments. Estimated exposures for adults and children in all indoor dust were below the relevant reference doses. Additionally, TCPP was the primary contributors to the non-carcinogenic risk, ranging from 1.07 × 10−6 to 2.20 × 10−5. Tris (2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate was the dominant carcinogenic risk contributor in indoor dust, with a range of 1.33 × 10−11 to 8.74 × 10−10. These results suggested that the health risk of OPEs was within acceptable limits in the tested areas.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21507036), the National Key R & D project (2017YFD0800705), the Yunnan Environmental Protection Department, and the Key Technologies and Demonstration Projects of Soil Remediation based on the Coupling of Organic Agriculture, Soil and Water Quality YNZDZB [2017]002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 211198, China

    Dong Li, Jianqiu Chen & Ruixin Guo

  2. Nanjing Institute of Environmental, Ministry of Ecology and Environmental, No.8 Jiangwangmiao Street, Nanjing, 210042, China

    Dong Li, Qin Zhang, Shenghu Zhang, Ninghui Song & Huaizhou Xu

  3. Shen Shan Smart City Research Institute Co. Ltd., Technology Incubator Base 2#, Chuangfu Road, Ebu Town, Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone, Shenzhen, 516473, China

    Huaizhou Xu

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  1. Dong Li
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  2. Qin Zhang
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  3. Jianqiu Chen
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  4. Shenghu Zhang
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Correspondence to Huaizhou Xu or Ruixin Guo.

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Li, D., Zhang, Q., Chen, J. et al. Characterization and health risk assessment of organophosphate esters in indoor dust from urban and rural domestic house and college dormitory in Nanjing, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 36826–36837 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09494-6

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