BPB Reports

Paper Details

BPB Reports
Vol. 7 No. 2 p.39-43 2024
Regular Article
Validation Study for Establishing a Standard Test Method for Volatile Organic Compounds in Indoor Air in Japan using Solvent Extraction
  • Maiko Tahara (National Institute of Health Sciences / tahara@nihs.go.jp)
Masahiro Chiba 1) , Shiori Oizumi 1) , Aya Onuki 2) , Ikue Saito 2) , Reiko Tanaka 3) , Takashi Yamanouchi 3) , Yuko Yokoyama 4) , Takanari Wakayama 5) , Hiroyuki Ohno 5) , Maiko Tahara 6) , Shinobu Sakai 6)
1) Hokkaido Institute of Public Health , 2) Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health , 3) Yokohama City Institute of Public Health , 4) Chiba Prefectural Institute of Public Health , 5) Nagoya City Public Health Research Institute , 6) National Institute of Health Sciences
Received: December 28, 2023;   Accepted: February 21, 2024;   Released: March 13, 2024
Keywords: indoor air, volatile organic compounds, inter-laboratory validation, solvent extraction, standard test method
Abstracts

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan has set the guideline values for indoor air concentrations of 13 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds from 1997 to 2002. However, in 2019, the guideline values for three of these substances, including xylene, were revised and regulated more strictly. Additionally, the manual for analysis of VOCs in indoor air, established in 2001 by the Committee on Sick House Syndrome: Indoor Air Pollution, has not been updated for over 20 years. In this study, we confirmed that the current analytical method for VOCs in indoor air using solvent extraction which was established in 2001, is applicable to VOCs that have been revised or added since then. We proposed it as a standard test method and performed an inter-laboratory validation study in five laboratories to prove this. This validation study included nine substances: six VOCs with current guideline values and three VOCs as candidates for newly setting guideline values. Additional amount in this study was set as 1 µg, less than one-tenth of the guideline value for xylene. The results showed that the average recovery, repeatability, and reproducibility for the nine substances in the five laboratories were 75.4%–115%, 0.78%–9.6%, and 3.6%–21%, respectively. These values satisfied the determined criteria ranges, suggesting that our proposed analytical method can be used as a standard test method.