Non-professional paint stripping, model prediction and experimental validation of indoor dichloromethane levels

We have experimentally quantified exposure to dichloromethane during non-professional paint stripping and validated the mathematical paint exposure model of van Veen et al. (1999). The model innovates the prediction of the dichloromethane evaporation rate and room concentration by accounting for transport in the paint stripper matrix. The experiments show that peak concentrations range from 600 to 1600 mg/m3, increasing to 2000 mg/m3 when direct sun radiation increases evaporation. A naive model prediction, using a priori parameter values from the experimental set-up and a previous experiment with alkanes, accurately predicts the upper range of the experimental values, but overpredicted four out of six experiments. Statistical fit of the two paint stripper layer parameters to the experimental data resulted in a good coincidence of predicted and experimental data. Model and experiment indicate that 10-30% of dichloromethane is immediately available for evaporation.