Indoor exposure assessment for levels of dust mite and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in living houses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to measure the levels of dust mites (Dermatophagoides farina group 1 [Der f1] and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus group 1 [Der p1]) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in the resident environments with living conditions such as the number of ventilation; the number of window, floor, and temperature; and relative humidity (RH) from vulnerable class in South Korea. Information on residents is designed to be prepared by residents on their general characteristics (daily residence time, heating and cooking type, and cleaning on the day of sampling). Dust mites levels ranged from 24.0 to 1087.5 ng/g with a mean of 215.4 ng/g for Der f1 and from 0.6 to 489.9 ng/g with a mean of 489.9 ng/g for Der p1. Total TVOC levels ranged from 15.3 to 1642.1 μg/m³ with a mean of 219.7 μg/m³. The correlation analysis showed a positive association between Der f1 levels and xylene levels in fall (r = 0.49, r < 0.05) of this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Dust mite
• Der F1 and Der p1
• volatile organic compounds
• living conditions
• xylene

Disclosure statement

Sung Ho Hwang was involved in conceptualization, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, and review process; Sangwon Lee was involved in experimental works, data analysis and interpretation; Jong-Uk Won was involved in methods validation and manuscript verification and Wha Me Park was involved in methods elaboration and validation, manuscript verification and corrections, and review process. All other authors declare that they have not been involved in any regulatory activities related to the contents of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korean (NRF) (2020R1F1A1070408, 2021R1A2C2012884).