Volatile organic compounds(VOCs) detected frequently in the indoor air of child-care centers causes neurological disorders, lung, eyes, and bronchial irritation, and acute and chronic toxicity. In this study, the distributions of carcinogenic VOCs detected in child-care centers were characterized and a health risk assessment of the VOCs was performed, which can provide the necessary information for drawing up safety plans with respect to the concerned materials. The sampling of sites in day-care centers was undertaken two times: in the morning (10:00~12:00), and afternoon(16:00~20:00)-at 23 daycare centers located in Seoul, Korea from April, 2012 to July, 2012. The overall average concentrations of individual VOCs were benzene(1.61 μg/m3) > carbon tetrachloride (0.78 μg/m3) > chloroform(0.67 μg/m3) in order. Indoor/outdoor(I/O) ratios of benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform were 1.33, 1.09, 1.72, respectively. Benzene and carbon tetrachloride are thought to be more strongly associated with outdoor sources as compared to chloroform. Spearman correlation of benzene, carbon tetrachloride between indoor and outdoor concentration showed statistically significant levels(p < 0.05). The linear correlations for benzene, styrene, and carbon tetrachloride were tested. A significant correlation was observed only for carbon tetrachloride, accounting for 83 % of the variance. The risk assessment of the carcinogenic VOCs for teachers, infants, and children showed that none of the targeted VOCs posed a serious risk.

The children of daycare center are sensitive to indoor environmental pollution. This study was a preliminary investigation for improving the environmental and healthy quality of daycare centers. The sampling of sites in daycare centers was undertaken three times such as day-morning (10:00-12:00), afternoon (16:00-20:00), following dawn (04:00-08:00)-at 21 daycare centers located in Seoul, Korea from April, 2012 to July, 2012. The mean concentrations of TVOC were 255.2, 217.0, and 439.4 μg/m3 at morning, afternoon, and following dawn, respectively. The daycare center indoor/outdoor ratios on the most targeted volatile organic compounds were above 1.0 except that for carbon tetrachloride, which was almost 1.0. Significant correlations (p<0.01) were observed between indoor and outdoor carbon tetrachloride, which implies that indoor carbon tetrachloride could be largely accounted for by outdoor sources. The other targeted indoor volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, styrene, xylenes, chloroform showed no significant correlations with that of outdoor.