Environ. Sci. Technol. 1991, 25, 1496-1500
Mutagenicity of Indoor Air Containing Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Evaluation of a Portable PM-10 Impactor Sampler Paris E. Georghiou," Philip Biagden, David A. Snow, and Linda Winsor Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3x7
David T. Williams Health and Welfare Canada, Environmental Health Directorate, Monitoring and Criteria Division, Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OL2
An indoor air sampling impactor (IASI) was used to sample inhalable suspended particulate matter (PM-10) in indoor air. The unit, which is convenient to use, light weight and portable, was compared in a controlled indoor setting with a Sierra-Andersen dichotomous sampler (DICHOT) equipped with a PM-10 inlet. The two samplers were used for coreplicate sampling in the same test room both in the presence of and in the absence of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Gravimetric analyses and mutagenicity testing of solvent extracts of the particulate matter, using the microsuspension modification of the Salmonella typhimurium mutagenicity test, were used to compare the two samplers. In a limited field trial of the IASI sampler in various residential indoor environments containing low and high ETS levels, PM-10 concentrations ranged from 20 to 3000 pg/m3. Mutagenic responses in the presence of the S9 metabolizing system ranged from 13 to 13 000 revertants/m3. Introduction Nonindustrial indoor environments are significant contributors to human exposure to airborne pollutants (1). It has been estimated that individuals spend up to 90-9570 of their time indoors (2), where commonly encountered indoor air pollutants (3) include inhalable particulate matter (IPM). A considerable effort has been devoted to the sampling and evaluation of IPM in ambient air (4-6). Dichotomous samplers have been developed to fractionate the particulate matter (PM) having mean median diameters of
