As part of an investigation of the total indoor exposure of residents in PCB contaminated apartments in a building estate in Denmark, 73 homes were visited. Samples of air, vacuum cleaner dust and surface wipes were taken and analysed for 15 PCB congeners. The 53 apartments located in high-rise buildings with indoor PCB containing sealants showed significant elevated total concentrations of PCB in air, dust and surface wipes compared to 20 reference homes. The average concentration in exposed homes was 2330 ng PCB_total/m³ in air, 12.000 ng PCB_sum15/g in dust and for surface wipes 529 ng PCB_sum15/wipe. These values were respectively 40, 25 and 50 times higher than the averages found in reference homes. The air concentration in all exposed homes was higher than the lower recommended action level of 300 ng PCB_total/m³ from the Danish Health Authority, whereas all reference homes were below. The air concentrations in exposed homes were variating, partly due to indoor temperature. The concentrations in air and dust samples were significantly correlated for PCB_sum7 in exposed homes. No significant correlation was observed between samples of air and surface wipes, despite surface wipes from exposed homes were significantly different from wipes taken in reference homes. Both dust samples and surface wipes have a potential as screening tool for identifying elevated levels of the less chlorinated PCBs in air. Additional short-term measurements of air concentrations in a subgroup of exposed homes indicated limited diurnal variations within the individual homes. The congener patterns were rather uniform within the respective media from the exposed homes and dominated by tri- and tetraPCBs. The pattern of air differed from that of dust and surface wipes, which were more alike. The study demonstrates a wide spread PCB contamination of the indoor environment in buildings with PCB in indoor sealants and confirms the need for identifying and alleviate PCB in buildings causing a health concern to the occupants.

作为对丹麦某建筑村中PCB污染公寓中居民室内暴露总量的调查的一部分，访问了73所房屋。抽取了空气，真空吸尘器灰尘和表面抹布的样品，并分析了15种PCB同类物。位于高层建筑中的53套公寓中，室内的PCB中含有密封剂，与20所参考房屋相比，空气，灰尘和表面抹布中PCB的总浓度显着提高。暴露房屋中的平均浓度为空气中的_总浓度为2330 ng / m ³ / m ³，粉尘中的平均浓度为12.000 ng PCB_总量15 / g，粉尘的平均浓度为529 ng PCB_总量15/擦拭。这些值分别比参考房屋中的平均值高40、25和50倍。所有裸露房屋中的空气浓度都高于丹麦卫生局建议的最低建议行动水平300 ng PCB _total / m ³，而所有参考房屋均低于此水平。暴露房屋中的空气浓度在变化，部分原因是室内温度。空气和灰尘样品中的浓度与PCB_总和显着相关₇在裸露的房屋中。尽管暴露房屋的表面擦拭物与参考房屋中的擦拭物显着不同，但空气样本和表面擦拭物之间未观察到显着相关性。灰尘样品和表面抹布都具有作为筛选工具的潜力，可用于识别空气中氯化程度较低的PCB的水平升高。在裸露的房屋子集中进行的其他短期空气浓度测量表明，单个房屋内的日变化有限。在暴露的房屋中，同类介质中的同类物相当均匀，并以三和四PCB为主。空气的模式与灰尘和表面抹布的模式不同，后者更为相似。