Long & Medium-Term Research: Effects of Sorption to Surfaces on Indoor Concentrations of Organic Vapors This award recommendation is made under the Program for Long & Medium-Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence. The program seeks to enable U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct long-term research abroad at research institutions of proven excellence. Awards provide opportunities for the conduct of joint research, and the use of unique or compleme ntary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions in foreign countries. This award will support an eight-month visit by Dr. John Borrazzo to Berlin, Germany, to work with Dr. Bernd Seifert at the Institute for Water, Soil, and Air Hygiene on "Effects of Sorption to Surfaces on Indoor Concentrations of Organic Vapors." Research during the past decade indicates that indoor concentrations of organic vapors are unrelated to and often higher than outdoor concentrations for many compounds. This has important implications for public health since some of these compounds exhibit carcinogenic or mutagenic behavior in humans and/or animals. Some of the organic compounds may also exhibit acute health effects. For these reasons, understanding the fundamental processes which govern indoor concentrations is necessary. Both the PI and his host have independently explored the sorption of organic compounds to indoor surfaces. Few other data are available as this issue has only recently emerged as an important research question in the indoor air quality research community. The PI proposes to review the unpublished data of the host, to apply models for sorption kinetics and equilibrium developed as part of his recent doctoral studies, and to conduct experiments designed to resolve discrepancies between theory and the available data. The investigators expect one product of the research to be a refined sorption model. The collaboration should also result in broader incorporation of sorption effects in the general indoor air quality and exposure assessment models currently being developed.
