New approach methods for assessing indoor air toxicity

Graphical abstract

Highlights

• •

  New approach methods were used to assess the hazard of indoor air condensates.

• •

  Individual chemicals could not be detected in the condensates.

• •

  Indoor air hazard was demonstrable in biological assays indicating cumulative effect.

Abstract

Indoor air is typically a mixture of many chemicals at low concentrations without any adverse health effects alone, but in mixtures they may cause toxicity and risks to human health. The aim of this study was by using new approach methods to assess the potential toxicity of indoor air condensates. In specific, different in vitro test methods including cyto-and immunotoxicity, skin sensitization and endocrine disruption were applied. In addition to biological effects, the indoor air samples were subjected to targeted analysis of 25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and Genapol X-80 (a nonionic emulsifier) suspected to be present in the samples, and to a non-targeted “total chemical scan” to find out whether the chemical composition of the samples is associated with the biological effects.

The results confirm that assessing health risks of indoor air by analysing individual chemicals is not an adequate approach: We were not able to detect the VOCs and Genapol X-80 in the indoor air samples, yet, several types of toxicity, namely, cytotoxicity, immunotoxicity, skin sensitization and endocrine disruption were detected. In the non-targeted total chemical scan of the indoor air samples, a larger number of compounds were found in the cytotoxic samples than in the non-cytotoxic samples supporting the biological findings. If only one biological method would be selected for the screening of indoor air quality, THP-1 macrophage/WST-1 assay would best fit for the purpose as it is sensitive and serves as a good representative for different sub-toxic end points, including immunotoxicity, (skin) sensitization and endocrine disruption.