December 12th, 2017
Indoor and outdoor concentrations of six chlordane components ( trans-chlordane, cis-chlordane, transnonachlor, cis-nonachlor, oxychlordane, and MC5) were measured at 157 residences, all of which were inhabited by nonsmoking individuals, in three urban areas during June 1999-May 2000. The analyses were conducted on a subset of 48 h integrated samples collected in LosAngeles County, CA, Houston, TX, and Elizabeth, NJ within the Relationship of Indoor, Outdoor, and PersonalAir (RIOPA) study. Both particle-bound (PM2.5; quartz fiber filter) and vapor-phase (PUF sorbant) chlordane concentrations were separately measured by GC/EIMSafter solvent extraction. The outdoor (gas + particle) total chlordane ( trans-chlordane + cis-chlordane + trans-nonachlor + cisnonachlor) concentrations ranged from 0.036 to 4.27 ng m-3 in LosAngeles County, from 0.008 to 11.00 ng m-3 in Elizabeth, and from 0.062 to 1.77 ng m-3 in Houston. The corresponding indoor total chlordane concentrations ranged from 0.037 to 112.0 ng m-3 in LosAngeles County, from 0.260 to 31.80 ng m-3 in Elizabeth, and from 0.410 to 38.90 ng m-3 in Houston study homes. Geometric mean concentrations were higher in indoor air than outdoor air (1.98 vs 0.58 ng m-3 in CA; 1.30 vs 0.17 ng m-3 in NJ; 4.18 vs 0.28 ngm-3 in TX), which suggests there are significant indoor sources of chlordane species in a subset of homes in each of the three cities. Calculated source strengths relate to home age, with the highest apparent indoor source strengths occurring in unattached singlefamily homes built during the period from 1945 to 1959. Principle indoor sources of chlordanes likely include volatilization from residues of indoor application of chlordanes and infiltration from subsurface and foundation application of chlordane-containing termiticides during home construction. Environmental Science & Technology / Vol. 38, NO. 10, 2004