Updated speciation of VOCs emitted from European-market aerosol dispenser consumer products

Abstract

Aerosol dispensers are a popular format for consumer products that give rise to a substantial fraction of national volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in high income countries (e.g. ~6% to total annual UK VOC emissions). Given a high fraction of usage indoors these emissions can contribute to degraded indoor air quality in rooms with poor ventilation. Characterisation of emissions, both in terms of chemical speciation and amount released is currently poor. This paper presents a method for aerosol dispenser product VOC emission identification and quantification using a custom-built sampling chamber and complementary SIFT-MS and GC-FID-QMS techniques. UK product production statistics are used to up-scale laboratory data to over UK consumption providing an updated National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory speciation (NAEI). Ethanol, n-and iso-butane, and propane were the most abundant VOCs emitted with some species, such as cyclomethicones, identified here that are not currently reported in national emissions inventories. Bottom up estimates of emissions indicate that total VOC emissions from aerosol products are currently overestimated in the UK by ~ 37 ktonnes per year, particularly from carcare and cosmetics & toiletries sectors. Whilst there have been some widely reported detections of trace amounts of benzene in aerosol product in previous US studies, we do not find benzene present in any of the 45 products tested here.