| Abstract: | Many different kinds of sampling devices and analytical techniques are required to assess the potential adverse effects of toxic air pollutants on human health and the ecosystem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an on-going research and development program designed to provide the necessary tools to monitor air quality both outdoors and indoors and to measure personal respiratory exposures. Particular emphasis in recent years has been placed on real-time and integrative methods for neutral and polar volatile organic chemicals (e.g., chlorinated hydrocarbons, single-ring aromatics, alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, thiols, nitriles) and semi-volatile organics (e.g., polynuclear aromatics, nitrated aromatics, pesticides, phenols). Samplers capable of obtaining sufficient quantities of chemicals for ultratrace analyses and sometimes bioassay, that are also quiet, unobtrusive and user-friendly, are being developed and evaluated for indoor, outdoor, and personal monitoring. New analytical techniques such as matrix-isolation GC/FTIR, and supercritical fluid extraction and chromatography are being adapted to characterize collected samples. |
