Derivation of indoor dust screening concentrations for the protection of human health (DSC_HH) for inorganic elements

Abstract

Few guidelines, screening standards, or benchmarks exist for the assessment of wipe sampling results and bulk dust concentrations for indoor dust screening, and the existing guidelines are limited in their application or number of analytical parameters. To address this gap, guidelines – as indoor dust screening concentrations (DSC_HH) – were derived for 33 inorganic elements, following guidance for risk assessment of indoor dust, and using toxicological reference values from Canada or the U.S. The guidelines were developed on a surface area basis (for the assessment of wipe samples) and for bulk dust. The derived bulk dust DSC_HH’s were higher than most existing soil quality guidelines, suggesting that for all elements except bismuth, chromium (Cr), mercury, lead (Pb), nickel, and thallium, the soil quality guidelines are protective. Baseline values (background concentrations) obtained from a literature review were lower than most derived DSC_HH ’s. The exceptions were antimony, Pb, and vanadium surface area baseline values that were higher than the toddler DSC_HH in a residential scenario, and arsenic, Pb, and Cr bulk dust baseline concentrations that were higher than toddler DSC_HH’s. If these elements are a concern in a risk assessment, the practitioner should be aware that baseline values may need to be examined closely, which may include measuring local baseline conditions.

Keywords:

• Dust
• guideline
• benchmark
• bulk concentration
• surface wipe

Acknowledgements

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest. Intellectual and academic support from the Environmental Sciences Group (Royal Military College of Canada) is gratefully acknowledged for IK, along with funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Discovery grant to IK) for AK.

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed at www.tandfonline.com/bher.