Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, nitro-PAHs, oxy-PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organic chlorinated pesticides (OCPs) in the indoor and outdoor air of pig and cattle houses

Forty five semivolatile gaseous-phase and solid-phase organic compounds, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitro-substituted PAHs (nitro-PAHs), oxygenated PAHs (oxy-PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organic chlorinated pesticides (OCPs) were quantified in samples of indoor and outdoor air collected on pig and cattle farms. Excepting oxy-PAHs, the concentrations of all the contaminants were higher in the indoor than in the outdoor samples. The air of the cattle houses contained higher concentrations of PAHs (40.1 to 71.5 ng/m(3)) (outdoor concentration 8.4 ng/m(3)) and that of the pig houses higher concentrations of PCBs (0.30 to 1.15 ng/m(3)) (outdoor concentration 0.10 ng/m(3)) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs; 0.41 to 4.33 ng/m(3)) (outdoor concentration 0.29 ng/m(3)). The congeners 28 and 153 predominated among PCBs in the cattle and the gig houses, respectively. p,p'-DDE predominated among DDT metabolites and HCH gamma-isomer (lindane) among HCHs in both the cattle and the pig houses. Of the nitro-PAHs, only 1-nitronaphthalene, 2-nitrofluorene, and 1-nitropyrene (0.04 to 0.21 ng/m(3)) were identified, these contaminants were present mostly in the gaseous phase. The solid phase contained mainly carcinogenic PAHs among which chrysene dominated (up to 0.69 ng/m(3)). In all the samples, the highest concentrations were found for phenanthrene reaching the values of 4.1 and 33.2 ng/m(3) in the outdoor and indoor samples, respectively.