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Assessment of indoor airborne contamination in a wastewater treatment plant

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Abstract

The main objective of this work was to quantify and characterize the major indoor air contaminants present in different stages of a municipal WWTP, including microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide ammonia, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In general, the total bacteria concentration was found to vary from 60 to >52,560 colony-forming units (CFU)/m3, and the total fungi concentration ranged from 369 to 14,068 CFU/m3. Generally, Gram-positive bacteria were observed in higher number than Gram-negative bacteria. CO2 concentration ranged from 251 to 9,710 ppm, and CO concentration was either not detected or presented a level of 1 ppm. H2S concentration ranged from 0.1 to 6.0 ppm. NH3 concentration was <2 ppm in most samples. Formaldehyde was <0.01 ppm at all sampling sites. The total VOC concentration ranged from 36 to 1,724 μg/m3. Among the VOCs, toluene presented the highest concentration. Results point to indoor/outdoor ratios higher than one. In general, the highest levels of airborne contaminants were detected at the primary treatment (SEDIPAC 3D), secondary sedimentation, and sludge dehydration. At most sampling sites, the concentrations of airborne contaminants were below the occupational exposure limits (OELs) for all the campaigns. However, a few contaminants were above OELs in some sampling sites.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this work was provided by a FCT project (PTDC/EQU-EQU/100554/2008) and by project PEst-C/EQB/LA0020/2011, financed by FEDER through COMPETE–Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade and by FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia for which the authors are thankful. R.A.R. Monteiro and F.V.S. Lopes acknowledge their PhD and post-doc scholarships (SFRH/BD/69323/2010 and SFRH/BPD/73894/2010, respectively), both supported by FCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LSRE-Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering-Associate Laboratory LSRE/LCM, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Juliana V. Teixeira, Sandra Miranda, Ricardo A. R. Monteiro, Filipe V. S. Lopes, Vítor J. P. Vilar & Rui A. R. Boaventura

  2. REQUIMTE, Porto, Portugal

    Juliana V. Teixeira & Nazaré Pestana

  3. CEQUIMED, Microbiology Service, Biological Sciences Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto (FFUP), Rua Aníbal Cunha, 4050-047, Porto, Portugal

    Eugénia Pinto

  4. IDMEC, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Madureira & Gabriela V. Silva

Authors
  1. Juliana V. Teixeira
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  2. Sandra Miranda
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  3. Ricardo A. R. Monteiro
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  4. Filipe V. S. Lopes
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  5. Joana Madureira
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  6. Gabriela V. Silva
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  7. Nazaré Pestana
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  8. Eugénia Pinto
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  9. Vítor J. P. Vilar
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  10. Rui A. R. Boaventura
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Correspondence to Vítor J. P. Vilar.

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Teixeira, J.V., Miranda, S., Monteiro, R.A.R. et al. Assessment of indoor airborne contamination in a wastewater treatment plant. Environ Monit Assess 185, 59–72 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2533-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2533-0

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