Hydrocarbons in indoor air and their health-effects

Summary Concentrations of harmful airborne substances are much higher in indoor air than outdoors. Furniture, cleansing agents, paints, solvents, carpets and floors release numerous v olatile o rganic c ompounds (VOCs), which can only be reduced through adequate ventilation. The present investigation considered data of 463 participants in the fourth year of age within a project of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. 39 of them developed wheezing symptoms, 148 bronchitis and 397 infections. A novel model, based on logistic regression, was used to find associations between certain VOC concentrations and the outcome of airway diseases. The analysis involved gender, contact with cats, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and the prevalence of atopy in both parents. The aim was to find threshold concentrations of VOCs and to give recommendations for the abatement of environmentally caused diseases. The present research proved findings of other studies, for instance, that “wheezing ever” appeared when high concentrations of hexane, benzene, ethylbenzene, and chlorbenzene were reported. Such relationships were observed for “wheezing ever” in the past year. The number of wheezing participants was low (39) and, therefore, also some other airway diseases (infection, bronchitis and asthma) were tested for their relationship to VOC concentrations.