Distribution of synthetic antioxidants in outdoor and educational indoor dusts and assessment of human exposure

Antioxidants have been received recognized as contaminants in the environmental field due to the reports of adverse effects. In this study, a total of 35 outdoor dusts and 20 educational indoor dusts were sampled to investigated the occurrence and spatial distribution of antioxidants, and eight antioxidants were positively found in dusts. For the indoor dusts, the total antioxidant concentrations (Σ 8 Ant) were in the range of 15.7–5282 ng/g, 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) was the dominate compound which constituted of 46.4% in the total concentrations of detected antioxidants. The composition profiles of antioxidants (67.9%) in outdoor dusts were different from that in indoor dusts, N -(1,3-dimethylbutyl)- N ′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) was the main component of all the identified antioxidants. Various microenvironments exhibited different contamination characteristics of antioxidants, the rank order of Σ 8 Ant was following as: campus roads (average concentration: 35.4 ng/g) < pedestrian streets (59.1 ng/g) < urban roads (92.9 ng/g) < teaching buildings (105 ng/g) < laboratory buildings (530 ng/g) < dormitories (1652 ng/g). Based on the measured Σ 8 Ant in dusts, we estimated daily intake via dust ingestion to be 3.90e −2 to 9.55e −2  ng/kg BW/day for adults under high exposure scenario. Overall, the occurrence and spatial distribution of antioxidants in outdoor and educational indoor spaces were investigated and the potential risks of detected antioxidants exposure in toddlers and adults were assessed in the present study.