School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China.
School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jun 10;720:137640. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137640. Epub 2020 Feb 29.
Benzene is a carcinogen. Exposure to benzene severely threatens people's health. While its indoor sources such as paint and solvent have been tightly regulated as a result of its inclusion into indoor air standards globally, its outdoor emission from traffic and industry is less addressed. Since human's exposure to benzene mainly occurs indoors, how outdoor benzene affects indoor concentrations is a critical issue, but not well discussed yet. This study summarized 118 pairs of outdoor-indoor measurement of benzene concentrations mainly published in the past five years. We found that the outdoor benzene concentrations measured in developing countries exceed 5 μg/m, an annual concentration limit recommended by Europe Union, more often than developed ones. It implies a worse benzene pollution situation in the developing places, probably due to strong emission from traffic and industry. The outdoor/indoor concentration ratio is 0.69 and 0.84 for the developing and developed places, respectively. It indicates a significant, if not dominant, role of outdoor benzene in formulating indoor concentrations over indoor sources. Controlling outdoor benzene emission is therefore highlighted. Actions should be taken to regulate benzene emission sources such as traffic and industry. This is particularly urgent to protect occupants in buildings close to roads and factories.
苯是一种致癌物质。接触苯会严重威胁人们的健康。尽管由于其被纳入全球室内空气质量标准，其室内来源（如油漆和溶剂）已受到严格监管，但来自交通和工业的室外排放却较少受到关注。由于人类主要在室内接触苯，因此室外苯如何影响室内浓度是一个关键问题，但尚未得到充分讨论。本研究总结了过去五年间主要发表的 118 对苯的室外-室内浓度测量数据。我们发现，发展中国家测量到的室外苯浓度超过了 5μg/m³，这超过了欧盟推荐的年浓度限值。这表明发展中国家的苯污染情况更严重，可能是由于交通和工业排放较强所致。发展中国家和发达国家的室外/室内浓度比分别为 0.69 和 0.84。这表明，室外苯在形成室内浓度方面起着显著作用，即使不是主导作用，而不是室内源。因此，强调需要控制室外苯排放。应采取行动来规范交通和工业等苯排放源。这对于保护靠近道路和工厂的建筑物内的居住者尤为紧迫。
