Chinese scientists have developed a passive sampler that can be used for monitoring common indoor air pollutants. Air quality is currently an important topic in China, with air pollution rivalling food safety and clean drinking water as a key theme for Chinese lawmakers. The quality of indoor air can be just as compromised as the outside. Nowadays, people spend a large amount of their time indoors so it is important to be able to accurately measure indoor air quality.
Should indoor air pollution be as much of a concern as outdoor air pollution?
The Tsinghua Passive Diffusive Sampler (THPDS), made by Yinping Zhang and colleagues at Tsinghua University, China, is a low-cost, passive air sampler that can be used to monitor levels of the volatile organic compounds (VOC), benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). ‘Rapid urbanisation in China has resulted in serious indoor BTX pollution in the past few decades. However, there is little quantitative information on indoor BTX exposure and corresponding health risks in China, primarily because there has been a lack of cheap and accurate passive samplers,’ says Zhang.
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Evaluation of a New Passive Sampler Using Hydrophobic Zeolites as Adsorbents for Exposure Measurement of Indoor BTX
Zhengjian Du, Jinhan Mo, Yinping Zhang, Xinxiao Li and Qiujian Xu
Anal. Methods, 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3AY40600H
