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One of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is leading people remain at homes longer than ever. Considering the elongation of the time people spend indoors, the potential health risks caused by contaminants including heavy metals in indoor environments have become even more critical. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels and sources of heavy metals in indoor dust, to assess the exposure to heavy metals via indoor dust, and to estimate the associated health risk. The highest median value was measured for Zn (263 μg g

Levels, seasonal variation, and air-soil exchange of 22 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and 15 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were determined in addition to the first insight into the enantiomeric signatures of chiral OCPs in an agricultural region of Turkey. A total of 47 polyurethane foam disk passive air samples and 34 surface/indepth soil samples were analyzed. Sigma OCP and Sigma PCB levels in air samples were 32.6-741 pg/m(3) and nd-2764 pg/m(3), while they were nd-28.1 ng/g dw and nd-0.302 ng/g dw in soil samples, respectively. Dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites and endosulfan isomers were the most prevalent chemicals along with the light-weighted PCB congeners. During this study, lower or similar contamination levels were observed compared to global studies conducted in agricultural regions. The enantiomer fractions of o,p'-DDT in air samples might be due to re-volatilization of equally depleted enantiomers or fresh input of racemic o,p'-DDT to the air. The fugacity fractions showed that net deposition is the dominant mechanism.

This paper presents data obtained from concurrently deployed polyurethane foam disk passive samplers in Kuwait, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Oman between January and October 2018. The study’s main goal was to initiate a passive air sampling network across the Middle East to generate comparable data, which will help report obligations of the various countries and be used in protocol discussions. The ∑24OCP concentrations were highest in the samples collected from Kartaba in Lebanon (7780 pg·m-3), and the lowest concentration was recorded at the BUTAL site in the Bursa province of Turkey (7.27 pg·m-3). The mean ambient ∑24OCP concentrations on a country-specific basis over consecutive sampling campaigns were: Lebanon (1680 pg·m-3) > Bursa (Turkey) (78.7 pg·m-3) > Oman (55 pg·m-3) > Kuwait (42 pg·m-3) > Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (19.1 pg·m-3). The results show no cancer risk due to inhalation of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in ambient air. This study provides the first reliable measurements of the spatial variability in the atmospheric concentrations of OCPs across several Middle Eastern countries, providing a baseline for assessing time trends in air, one of the core matrices for the effectiveness evaluation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.