Emerging organic contaminants in dusts of hospital premise

Hospital interiors are affected by a number of toxicants, some of which are peculiar owing to people hosted (patients and daily service frequenters), to activities carried out and chemicals used there (e.g., radiotherapy and disease screening; pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and disinfectants). Hence, hospital workers and visitors suffer exposure to unknown amounts of toxicants, whose impact on health is far from being assessed. Apart organic contaminants that are common outdoors (n-alkanes, PAHs) and indoors (phthalate esters, flame retardants), hospital interiors host several emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) recognized as potentially toxic as able to promote eye, skin and throat irritation, asthma, allergies, DNA mutations, endocrine disruption, cardiac and body temperature alteration, etc. Among them, there are psychotropic substances, drugs, fragrances and personal care chemicals, biocides and plasticizer. Nevertheless, investigations are overall restricted to macropollutants (NO, NO2, PM, O3, CO, SO2) and sometimes to VOC characterization (including anesthetics) [1, 2]. The occurrence of organic contaminants was investigated in deposition dusts from interiors of Rome hospitals. Attention has paid to PAHs (as regular tracers of toxicity) and phthalates, as well as to licit and illicit drugs (nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, ∆9 -THC and cannabinol), pharmaceuticals and related chemicals (bisphenol-A, nonylphenols). Experiments were undertaken also in a dwelling home and outdoors, to enjoy of a reference environmental situation. Despite most EOCs exist also in the gas phase, depositions are ascertained to hold more semi-volatile organics than fine airborne particulates. Besides, in interiors the human intake of toxicants via ingestion and skin contact is more important than outdoors; therefore, chemical characterization of dusts looks as a suitable preliminary approach in studies aimed at assessing the exposure and health risk for humans in hospitals. [1] G. A. Eiceman, D. B. Shoff, C. S. Harden, A. P. Snyder, P. M. Martinez, M. E. Fleischer, and M. L. Watkins, Anal. Chem., 1989, 61, 1093-1099. [2] A. Kenarkoohi, Z. Noorimotlagh, S. Falahi, A. Amarloei, S.A. Mirzaee, I. Pakzad, E. Bastani, Sci. Total Environ., 2020, 748, 141324.