Determination of indoor air quality of a phytosanitary plant

A new methodology has been developed to determine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and pesticides in ambient air using membrane based devices as passive samplers. Pesticides were determined by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC–MS) after their microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) from the passive sampler and the required clean-up. On the other hand, VOCs were also caught with the same samplers and directly determined by head space (HS) coupled to GC–MS. The use of samplers filled with florisil and activated carbon allows us to catch with a simple device both, VOCs and pesticides, with a high vapor pressure. Results obtained in the deployment of samplers in different sites of a phytosanitary plant evidenced the presence of high quantities of chlorpyriphos at thousand ng m3 and also metalaxyl, oxyfluorphen and lindane at ng m3 together with carbon disulfide, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, ethylbenzene and xylene.