Indoor transfluthrin concentration levels during and after the application of electric vaporizers using a Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometer

Aude Vesin (1) , Etienne Quivet (1) , Brice Temime-Roussel (1) , Henri Wortham (1)

1 LCE - Laboratoire Chimie de l'environnement

Field measurements involving two different electric vaporizers emitting transfluthrin in a full-scale experimental room are realized under controlled air exchange rate conditions. Due to the high temporal variability of indoor air concentrations during household pesticide application, a High Sensitivity Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometer (HS-PTR-MS) providing high-time resolved measurements is used, in order to accurately follow the concentration profiles during and immediately after the spreading periods. Thanks to its high measurement frequency (>1 measurement per min), this analytical device provides key parameters such as peak concentrations and kinetic characteristics. Ventilation is found to be a minor but non-negligible loss mechanism, crucial to maintain an acceptable air quality since it definitively withdraws transfluthrin from the room volume. Adsorption on indoor surfaces also appears to be a significant elimination process of transfluthrin from the gaseous phase, however acting as a temporary sink due to the reversible nature of this mechanism. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Domaines: Chimie; Océan, Atmosphère

Aude Vesin, Etienne Quivet, Brice Temime-Roussel, Henri Wortham. Indoor transfluthrin concentration levels during and after the application of electric vaporizers using a Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometer. Atmospheric Environment, 2013, 65, pp.123-128. ⟨10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.10.021⟩. ⟨hal-01455281⟩