Volatile Organic Compounds in Finnish Office Environments in 2010-2019 and Their Relevance to Adverse Health Effects

Abstract

We gathered recent (2010-2019) data on the VOC and formaldehyde levels in Finnish non-industrial indoor work environments. The data comprised 9789 VOC and 1711 formaldehyde samples collected from the indoor air of offices, schools, kindergartens, and healthcare offices. We assessed the health risks by comparing the measured concentrations to the health-based RW I/II and EU-LCI reference values. The concentrations of individual VOCs and formaldehyde in these work environments were generally very low and posed no health risks. Total VOC concentration (TVOC) as well as concentrations of several individual compounds, including aromatic compounds, alkanes, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, and formaldehyde, showed clearly decreasing trends. In contrast, several aldehydes, acids, and a few other compounds showed increasing trends. However, the increasing trends did not seem to affect the higher ends of the distributions, as the 95th percentile values remained fairly stable or decreased over the years. The VOC patterns in the environments of the offices, schools, kindergartens, and healthcare offices varied, probably reflecting the differences in typical activities and the use of materials. However, we do not expect these differences to be relevant to health outcomes.

Keywords: VOC; formaldehyde; health risk; indoor air quality; office; trend.

Figure 1

The shift in TVOC distribution in 2010–2019. The four different colour patterns represent the four quarters between the data points of Min, P25, Md, P75, and Max of the ten-year TVOC data (n = 9789). It can be seen from the graph that the share of the first quarter (Min–P25) increased and that the share of the top quarter (P75–Max) decreased during the study period.