EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY ON FORMALDEHYDE EMISSIONS IN TEMPORARY HOUSING UNITS Page: 3 of 22
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ABSTRACT
The effect of temperature and humidity on formaldehyde emissions from samples
collected from temporary housing units (THUs) was studied. The THUs were supplied
by the U.S Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to families that lost
their homes in Louisiana and Mississippi during the Hurricane Katrina and Rita disasters.
Based on a previous study 1,2, four of the composite wood surface materials that
dominated contributions to indoor formaldehyde were selected to analyze the effects of
temperature and humidity on the emission factors. Humidity equilibration experiments
were carried out on two of the samples to determine how long the samples take to
equilibrate with the surrounding environmental conditions. Small chamber experiments
were then conducted to measure emission factors for the four surface materials at various
temperature and humidity conditions. The samples were analyzed for formaldehyde via
high performance liquid chromatography. The experiments showed that increases in
temperature or humidity contributed to an increase in emission factors. A linear
regression model was built using natural log of percentage relative humidity (RH) and
inverse of temperature (in K) as predictor variables, and natural log of emission factors as
the target variable. The coefficients of both inverse temperature and log relative
humidity with log emission factor were found to be statistically significant for all the
samples at the 95% confidence level. This study should assist to retrospectively estimate
indoor formaldehyde exposures of occupants of temporary housing units (THUs).-3-
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Parthasarathy, Srinandini; Maddalena, Randy L.; Russell, Marion L. & Apte, Michael G. EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY ON FORMALDEHYDE EMISSIONS IN TEMPORARY HOUSING UNITS, article, April 1, 2010; Berkeley, California. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1012961/m1/3/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.