Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from consumer products into the indoor air can lead to the inhalation exposure of consumers to potentially hazardous chemicals. This investigation compared two analytical approaches to quantitatively screen VOC emissions from consumer products. A microchamber was used to examine the emissions of two selected products─a rain poncho and a skipping rope─under controlled conditions (temperature, air change rate), with a focus on the initial short-term emissions. Volatiles were sampled from the chamber either on sorbent tubes, with subsequent offline analysis by thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS), or with online analysis by proton transfer reaction–mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). The products emitted several compounds of toxicological relevance, including cyclohexanone, xylene, phenol, isophorone, and naphthalene. Data from the two approaches yielded similar emission curves for most compounds, with maximum concentrations observed within 30 min. Isophorone exhibited the highest peaks, with concentrations of ∼1.2 mg m –3 and ∼1.6 mg m –3 from TD-GC-MS and PTR-MS analysis, respectively. Discrepancies in the maximum concentrations between the methods ranged between 25% and 50% for most of the investigated compounds. Total amounts of emitted compounds were calculated as an alternative metric to single concentration values, which allow the assessment of inhalation exposure. This study demonstrates the utility of the two approaches in characterizing short-term VOC emissions from consumer products. PTR-MS analysis offers rapid quantitation of VOCs but has limitations in identifying individual compounds, highlighting the need for complementary analyses by TD-GC-MS. Despite inherent offline sampling, TD-GC-MS was shown to be well-suited to monitoring short-term emissions. This publication is licensed under You are free to share (copy and redistribute) this article in any medium or format and to adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) the material for any purpose, even commercially within the parameters below: Creative Commons (CC): This is a Creative Commons license. Attribution (BY): Credit must be given to the creator. *Disclaimer This summary highlights only some of the key features and terms of the actual license. It is not a license and has no legal value. Carefully review the actual license before using these materials. You are free to share (copy and redistribute) this article in any medium or format and to adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) the material for any purpose, even commercially within the parameters below: Creative Commons (CC): This is a Creative Commons license. Attribution (BY): Credit must be given to the creator. *Disclaimer This summary highlights only some of the key features and terms of the actual license. It is not a license and has no legal value. Carefully review the actual license before using these materials. You are free to share (copy and redistribute) this article in any medium or format and to adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) the material for any purpose, even commercially within the parameters below: Creative Commons (CC): This is a Creative Commons license. Attribution (BY): Credit must be given to the creator. *Disclaimer This summary highlights only some of the key features and terms of the actual license. It is not a license and has no legal value. Carefully review the actual license before using these materials.
Klein et al. (Fri,) studied this question.