Author/Authors :
Ahmad، A نويسنده School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia , , Othman، M R نويسنده School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia , , Latif، M T نويسنده School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ,
Abstract :
As surfactants enhance the membrane transport of organic compounds, it has to be
assumed that they decisively influence the absorption of pollutants from house dust. Sampling sites
for the surfactant analysis include housing areas, each location of which has different surroundings
such as rural, urban, construction, and industrial area. Three stations had been selected for each
housing area and cooking and smoking activities were recorded for each house. The concentration
of anionic and cationic surfactants was determined as Methylene Blue Active Substances (MBAS)
and Disulphine Blue Active Substances (DBAS) methods each using an ultraviolet-visible
spectrophotometer. The results indicated that the concentrations of MBAS and DBAS in indoor
dust were much higher than the street dust. It is concluded that activities in the house itself contributed
significantly to the high concentration level of MBAS and DBAS in indoor dust. Overall, the sequence
of concentration level of anions is as follows, Cl
-
> NO3
-
> SO4
2-
. The correlation between MBAS with
all the anions are weak (R2
chloride
= 0.0072, R2
nitrate
= 0.2469, R2
sulphate
= 0.00004) signifying that there is
only a little connection between surfactants and these anions.
