[Health risk assessment of VOCs from a furniture mall in Tianjin].

In order to understand the indoor air pollution of volatile organic compounds in furniture mall and to perform health risk assessment of chronic exposure to its workers, in this study, the air samples in a furniture mall in Tianjin were sampled in summer (June) and autumn (October) in 2011 and 2012, and the compositions of VOCs were investigated by using the method of reconcentration-GC-MS. The results showed that the indoor concentration of total pollutants was about 1.9 times higher than that of outdoor; the characterized odorous substances were dichloromethane, toluene, and alpha-pinene; aromatic compounds and halogenated alkane were detected in large amounts in furniture mall, and terpenes also occupied a certain proportion. The concentrations of benzene, toluene and xylene were significantly lower than the indoor air quality standards. There was a potential cancer risk of benzene and dichloromethane, the Lifetime Cancer Risks (LCR) of which were 1.24 x 10(-5) and 2.50 x 10(-5), respectively. The noncarcinogenic hazard index (HI) of TVOC was below 1, which was within the acceptable range. The health effects analysis showed that there was no partial correlation between the working seniority and heart rate, and pulmonary ventilation function. The biological monitoring and analysis of S-PMA and 8-OHdG in urine for the exposed group and control group showed that in the low-exposure conditions, smoking was an important factor affecting the concentration of S-PMA, but under conditions of higher-exposure, its influence was weakened; there was a positive correlation between S-PMA and 8-OHdG, there was also a correlation between S-PMA and sex, smoking and age; besides, there may be a correlation between S-PMA and the working seniority.