Metals in the indoor environment

Abstract

There is a growing recognition that individual exposures to a broad spectrum of metal, inorganic and organic pollutants exceed those from ambient and in some cases from the vicinity of industry environments. The agents often found in indoor environments are mostly known to be hazardous in high concentrations, but the lower limit of their dose response relationships are poorly defined.

The major sources of metals in indoor environments are cigarette smoke (mainstream and side stream), fuel combustion, house dust and consumer products with arsenic, cadmium, lead and nickel being of primary toxicological potential (i.e. carcinogenic, genotoxic and reproductive development). Aspects of levels and duration of human exposure to these elements in relation to existing body burdens and subsequent bioavailability and interactions are generally poorly known from inhalation sources.

Although the magnitude of indoor health hazards to metallic constituents is not now known, mounting evidence suggests that both identification of agents and the measurement of indoor exposures are critical for a more realistic assessment of the effect of this aspect of air pollution on human health.

Key Words:

• Indoor environment
• house dust
• smoke from fires
• cigarette smoke
• consumer products
• respirable particulates
• carcinogenic metal compounds
• cadmium
• nickel
• lead
• aluminium

Notes

Presented 11 April 1988 at the 3rd IAEAC Workshop on Toxic Metal Compounds, Follonica, Italy.