Standard Guide for Determination of Airborne PFAS in the Indoor Air Environment

Importancia y uso:

5.1 Some PFAS have been implicated in adverse human health impacts (4, 5, 6). Therefore, quantifying PFAS concentrations in indoor air is important for accurate and meaningful exposure analysis and risk assessments.

5.2 PFAS found in air can have a wide range of chemical characteristics that will impact sampling practice selection. For example, estimated vapor pressure values can vary by ten orders of magnitude, while estimated Henry’s Law constants can vary by five orders of magnitude (Table 1). This means that sampling and analytical methods that are appropriate for one PFAS compound may not be appropriate for other PFAS compounds. Hence, prior to sampling and selecting analytic methods for PFAS measurement in indoor air, it is critical to establish that the chosen PFAS sampling method(s) is appropriate for the target compound(s), the sampling location, and the environmental conditions.

5.3 The measurement of PFAS in indoor air is an active and growing research topic. Understanding of PFAS properties, sampling and analytic approaches and techniques is constantly evolving. This includes the determination of physical-chemical properties of many PFAS, which may not even have been measured experimentally or which have a wide range of experimentally determined properties (that is, 8:2 FTOH in Table 1). This guide describes methods that are in use at the time of publication.

5.4 PFAS in indoor air may come from a wide range of sources, including consumer products, building materials, food packaging, outdoor air, and other miscellaneous sources. PFAS is also commonly quantified in indoor dust. There are several methods that quantify these chemicals in solid and liquid media including, but not limited to Guide E3302, Test Method D7968, Test Method D7979, Test Method D8421, Test Method D8535, US EPA 533, and US EPA 537.1. US EPA OTM-45 quantifies some PFAS in the combined gas and particle phases of stationary sources, such as incinerator stack sampling.

5.5 This guide is applicable to sampling PFAS in indoor air (typically 15 °C to 30 °C, 20 % to 80 % relative humidity (RH)). While sources like soil vapor intrusion impact indoor air, the methods described here have not necessarily been applied or verified in other gaseous environments, such as soil pore vapor, stack samples, or under ambient outdoor air conditions (<10 °C, >30 °C, <20 % RH, >80 % RH). The methods and information presented here may apply or be compatible with determination of other PFAS or PFAS-like compounds, such as freons and greenhouse gases in other environments, including other collection and acquisition schemes, such as canister methods. However, the scope of this guide is limited to observationally reported PFAS in indoor air.

Subcomité:

D22.05

Referida por:

D8591-24

Volúmen:

11.07

Número ICS:

13.040.20 (Ambient atmospheres)

Palabras clave:

active sampling; CIMS; extraction; GC; LC; passive sampling; PFAS; sample media;