Evaluation of indoor BTX in an outskirt zone of Rome (Italy)

Correlation between indoor and outdoor levels of BTX (benzene, toluene and the sum of ethyl benzene, o-xylene, m-xylene and p-xylene) has been investigated at thirteen homes, thirteen classrooms and related outdoor atmospheres. Non smoking people and low polluted sites were chosen for this campaign, in order to highlight if commonly used domestic materials could act as internal sources. Data, obtained by employing long-term diffusive samplers over a three-month period, are compared with a parallel experiment showing the day-night indoor/outdoor trend. The obtained results let us conclude that there is evidence of internal sources at homes whilst in the schools depletion phenomena prevail, probably due to the walls adsorption.