In recent years, volatile organic compounds have caused chemical sensitivity by increasing indoor air pollutant concentrations. In order to solve the problem, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japanese Government established the guideline values for indoor air concentrations, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, toluene and so on. However it is not clear that accuracy of the measurement method for volatile organic compounds in indoor air is sufficient enough to judge the indoor air quality of the room to the guidelines.
This study aimed at investigating precision of the analytical method using DNPH cartridge for indoor formaldehyde and acetaldehyde concentrations. Sample cartridges of the blank, standard and indoor air were prepared. The 5 kinds of DNPH cartridges were used to analyze dispersion of the test results, and the samples for laboratory tests using HPLC were sent to 11 laboratories. Since the CV values were under 20%, the dispersion was not too large. The dispersions found in data were considered to be caused by accuracy of cartridges and analyzing performance of each laboratory. We should recognize that data for indoor concentrations by DNPH cartridge could be fairly dispersed.
