Endocrine disrupting chemicals in indoor and outdoor air
Section snippets
Background
The rapid development of new building materials, furnishings, and consumer products over the past 50 years has resulted in a corresponding increase in new chemicals in the built environment (Weschler, 2009). Indoor concentrations are largely uncharacterized, but they have likely increased over time as a wider variety of chemicals are used and air exchange rates in buildings decrease to improve energy efficiency (Weschler, 2009). Chemical concentrations are often highest indoors because many of
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) use in the US began in 1929 and peaked in the 1970s (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2000, Vorhees, 2001). The mixtures of 209 possible PCB congeners based on the number and position of chlorine atoms were valued for their low flammability and vapor pressure and used extensively through the 1970s in a wide range of consumer products such as flame retardants, paints, plastics, adhesives, lubricants, sealants, hydraulic and heat transfer fluids,
Conclusion
Ongoing research shows that indoor environments provide important opportunities for exposure to a wide variety of chemicals in commercial use, including pesticides (Rudel, 2008b, Rudel et al., 2003, Zota et al., 2008). Indoor environments are well documented as important opportunities for exposure due to the fact that so many chemicals have indoor sources, indoor concentrations of many compounds are much higher than outdoor, and a majority of time is spent indoors (US General Accounting Office,
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), NIH grant 5R25ES13258-4 and from appropriations of the Massachusetts Legislature administered by the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
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