Environmental Engineering / Çevre Mühendisliği

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/4321

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  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 6
    Citation - Scopus: 9
    The Effect of Military Conflict Zone in the Middle East on Atmospheric Persistent Organic Pollutant Contamination in Its North
    (Elsevier, 2023) Ayrı, İlknur; Genişoğlu, Mesut; Sofuoğlu, Aysun; Kurt Karakuş, Perihan B.; Birgül, Askın; Sofuoğlu, Sait Cemil
    This study aimed to investigate long-range atmospheric transport of selected POPs released due to the effects of mili-tary conflicts in regions to the south of Turkey's borders. Ten locations were selected to deploy passive air samplers at varying distances to the border on a southeast-west transect of the country, proximity-grouped as close, middle, and far. Sampling campaign included winter and transition months when desert dust transport events occur. Hypothesis of the study was that a decreasing trend would be observed with increasing distance to the border. Group comparisons based on statistical testing showed that PBDE-183, E45PCB, and dieldrin in winter; PBDE-28, PBDE-99, PBDE-154, p,p '-DDE, E14PBDE, and E25OCP in the transition period; and PBDE-28, PBDE-85, PBDE-99, PBDE-154, PBDE-190, PCB-52, E45PCB, p,p '-DDE, and E25OCP over the whole campaign had a decreasing trend on the transect. An analysis of concen-tration ratio to the background showed that long-range atmospheric transport impacted the study sites, especially those of close group in comparison to the local sources. Back-trajectory analyses indicated that there was transport from the conflict areas to sites in the close-proximity group, while farther sampling locations mostly received air masses from Europe, Russia, and former Soviet Union countries, followed by North Africa, rather than the military con-flict areas. In consequence, decrease in concentrations with distance and its relation to molecular weight through pro-portions, diagnostic ratios, analysis of concentration ratio to the background, and back-trajectory analyses support the effect of transport from the military-conflict area to its north.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 5
    Citation - Scopus: 7
    Bleach-Containing Automatic Toilet-Bowl Cleaners as Sources of Vocs, Associated Indoor Air Concentrations and Carcinogenic Risk
    (Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research (TUNCAP), 2020) Ayrı, İlknur; Genişoğlu, Mesut; Gaygısız, Handan; Sofuoğlu, Aysun; Sofuoğlu, Sait Cemil
    Household cleaning products are sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Bleach containing products are a special case because reactions occur between chloride and their organic content such as surfactants, perfumes, etc., generating VOCs. This study aimed to determine concentration of 13 VOCs in bleach-containing automatic toilet cleaners, to estimate their indoor air concentrations and associated exposure and health risk levels. Experiments with products purchased from supermarkets were conducted in 20-mL headspace vials by placing 1 g of sample with and without water. Solid-phase micro extraction with a DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber assembly was used for adsorption of VOCs from the headspace, and analyzed using a GC-MS. The median carbon tetrachloride and chloroform concentrations of the studied products ranged from 5.03 × 10?3 to 2.37 × 10?2 ?g/g and 2.53 × 10?2 to 2.37 ?g/g, respectively. The modeled 95th percentile indoor air concentrations in a 1.6 m3 bathroom with no ventilation were estimated to be 1 and 20 ?g/m3 for carbon tetrachloride and chloroform, respectively. The 95th percentile carcinogenic risk associated even with the use of the highest content product, 3.72 × 10?7 and 8.62 × 10?7 for carbon tetrachloride and chloroform respectively, were below the acceptable risk. In conclusion, automatic toilet-bowl cleaners were found to be sources of VOCs, but their emission potentials are not high to cause considerable indoor air concentrations over their suggested product lifetime. In turn, carcinogenic risks associated with inhalation exposure are below the de Minimis risk level of 10?6. © 2020