Health risk assessment of total volatile organic compounds, particulate matters and trace elements in PM₁₀ in typical living rooms in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, particulate matter and total volatile organic compounds in the air are the primary environmental concern of the world due to their health impact. Therefore, the present work was focused on the assessment of short-term exposure to particulate matter (PMs) in the air samples of different particle size (PM₁, PM_2.5, PM₄, PM₇, PM₁₀) and total suspended particles (TSP), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) and trace elements in PM₁₀ in the living room (a place where inhabitants spent more of their indoor time). PMs and TVOCs were measured by simple and portable sensors, respectively. The elemental composition of PM₁₀ was analysed by using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The geometric mean (GOM) of PMs in the living room ranged from 5.68 to 99.0 µg m⁻³, whereas the TVOCs were found to be 289 µg m⁻³. The health risk due to exposure to PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and TSP was performed according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency prescription using hazard quotient calculation (HQ) and hazard index calculation (HI). The results showed that HI and HQ for PM_2.5, PM₁₀ and TSP were less than one indicating that the non-carcinogenic effect is not significant. The levels of trace elements (Fe, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, B, Ni, Co, Sn, Cu, and Zn) in PM₁₀ were found in the range: 0.001–0.026 µg m⁻³. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks due to elements in PM₁₀ exposure were also not significant.

KEYWORDS:

• Living room
• air quality
• volatile organic compounds
• particulate matters
• elemental composition
• health risk assessment

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the Department of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University for providing the laboratory facilities. Asamene Embiale is thankful to the Woldia University (Ethiopia) for sponsoring his PhD study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Data availability Statement

All the data are included in the manuscript. There are no additional data with the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study did not receive any research grant from any source.