"Emissions, fate, exposure and management of chemical contaminants indoors, outdoors and globally."

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Toxic chemicals invoke fear amongst the public due to increasing evidence of health problems caused by exposures to these compounds. The government has responded by supporting chemical management initiatives in Canada and internationally. More immediately, the public is eager to learn how to minimize their exposure. This proposal aims to contribute scientific and engineering knowledge and methods to better understand and quantify sources, emissions and environmental fate of toxic semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) indoors and outdoors in our cities. We spend 22 of 24 hours indoors where we are exposed to elevated concentrations of SVOCs in air and dust and over 80% of Canadians live in cities that are regional "hot spots" of many SVOCs. The results from this research will benefit Canadians by providing guidance on minimizing human and ecosystem exposure through public health advice and improving chemical management policies. The proposal has four components. First, we plan to experimentally study SVOC sources (such as products), emissions and fate indoors and use this information in our Multimedia Indoor Model. Experimentation will look at the sponge-like capacity of polyurethane foam (PUF) furniture to take up SVOCs with and without PUF compressions (aka bouncing on the furniture). Several well characterized rooms will be quantified for their SVOC emissions and fate. Second, we will study the effect of clothing on SVOC absorption across skin. We will test our "Leisure suit" hypothesis which postulates that synthetic fabrics (e.g., a Leisure suit) increase exposure to SVOCs relative to nature fibres. Results from these experiments and exposure measurements will be used to model human exposure. 3. Indoor SVOCs ultimately end up outdoors where air concentrations are up to 10 times higher in urban than rural locations. We will measure outdoor SVOC concentrations and estimate emissions as a function of products indoors using our Multimedia Urban Model. Fourth, we ask if we need a planetary boundary for chemical pollution as proposed by Rockström et al. (2009) and if so, how will the boundary be defined.