Characterization of VOCs, ozone, and PM10 emissions from office equipment in an environmental chamber

Indoor air pollution in working places is widely recognized as one of the most serious potential environment risks to human health (WHO, Indoor air quality research: Report on a WHO meeting Stockholm 1984, Euro-reports & Studies 103, WHO, Copenhagen, Denmark 1986, p. 1–64). A stainless steel flow-through environmental chamber was used to characterize the emissions rate of pollutants from office equipment. Different types of office equipment (including fax machines, laser printers, ink-jet printers, scanners, and photocopying machines) were investigated. The concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total VOC (TVOC), ozone, respirable particles (PM10) and temperature were measured. Characterization the species of VOCs was carried out by gas chromatography—mass selective detector (GC-MSD). The highest emission rates of VOCs compounds were toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene, and styrene. Results showed that emissions of ozone and VOC from laser printers were significantly higher than that from ink-jet printers. The emission rates of TVOC varied from 0.2 μg/copy(ink-jet printer) to 7.0 μg/copy(laser-jet).