Chemical Fingerprinting of Volatile Organic Compounds—A Forensic Tool to Apportion Pollution Sources in Industrial Micro-Environments

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are effective finger-print compounds to apportion pollutants to their sources and also to detect certain diseases. Hence there is an increasing number of studies on the sensitive and selective detection of these compounds in the gas phase. In the present study, sampling and analysis for VOCs were carried out as per the USEPA Compendium Method TO-17 for 54 selected VOCs in industrial indoor environments. The samplers were allowed to run for 8 h at the blast hole drilling yard (BHD), conveyor belt yard (CB) and Belt re-conditioning plant (BRP) in an open-cast lignite mine. Results of chemical fingerprinting revealed that chloroform was present in higher concentrations in BHD and CB, whereas toluene was present in higher levels at BRP. Trichloroethylene (TCE) was only identified in BHD but not in the other two locations. Its presence in BHD is due to the chemicals or degreasing solvents utilized. The level of aliphatic VOCs was higher in BHD and CB, whereas, in the case of BRP aromatic VOCs level was higher. Naphthalene is one of the most volatile polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and it was only found in BRP. Rubber solution is commonly used in belt reconditioning, and this could be the source of naphthalene. The identified fingerprint compounds can be used for the forensic investigation of pollution from mining-related activities.