International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—People stay most of the time indoor in humid climatic countries. Since synthetic materials especially plastics occupies our living rooms, indoor-accumulated dust is a health concern. Indoor surface dust samples were collected from living room of households in the city of Muscat, Oman. Samples were analyzed to identify 6 different species of phthalates using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Total phthalates concentration ranged from 0.01 to 1864.58 μg/g. Di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) was the predominant species contributing to more than 80% of the identified phthalates followed by di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). The presence of high concentration of DNOP in surface dust samples probably may reflect the carpet usage in Omani houses. The species of phthalates reported in this study are not comparable to those from studies conducted in other countries.

Index Terms—Exposure, muscat, phthalates, surface dust.

Fatma Al Touqi is with Wattaya Health Centre, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Oman.
Hameed Sulaiman and Hassan Al-Reasi are with Biology Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
S. P. Sathish Babu is with Central Analytical and Applied Research Unit, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman (e-mail: sathishpandi@gmail.com).

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Cite: Fatma Al Touqi, Hameed Sulaiman, S. P. Sathish Babu, and Hassan Al-Reasi, "Concentrations of Selected Phthalate Esters in Surface Dust in Omani Houses," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 9, no. 11, pp. 345-348, 2018.