Observation, prediction, and risk assessment of volatile organic compounds in a vehicle cabin environment

While vehicle cabin environment significantly impacts human health, systematic studies on this important microenvironment are lacking. Here, we conduct a 12-day field observation of a new car under vary-ing environmental conditions. Concentrations of 20 common vola-tile organic compounds are determined. Levels of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exceed the suggested limit, with 34.9% and 60.5% over the standard rate, respectively. By combining an improved multi-source model with quantitative correlations be-tween three key parameters of volatile compound emissions from various in-cabin materials and temperatures, we predict formalde-hyde concentrations at different temperatures, which are consistent with measurements. We find that volatile compound emission char-acteristics are dependent on material surface temperature rather than the widely used metric of air temperature. This study probes volatile compound variability in a realistic vehicle cabin via observa-tion and modeling and estimates in-cabin incremental lifetime can-cer risk via three exposure routes, indicating a high health risk for drivers.