Advisor(s)

Claudiu Lungu

Committee Member(s)

Jonghwa Oh
Margaret Osterbind

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

6-18-2026

Degree Name

Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH)

School

School of Public Health

Department

Environmental Health Sciences

Abstract

Workers at an office space raised complaints about a sweet-smelling odor directly outside their building. After an initial assessment of the surrounding businesses and their processes, it was determined that the workers were most likely exposed to styrene emissions from a nearby composites company. This investigation utilizes multiple weeks of direct readings with a photoionization device and active environmental sampling with a charcoal tube and pump to confirm the styrene exposure hypothesis. Weather trends were also recorded to determine correlation between weather and exposure to the sweet-smelling chemical. The direct readings found an exposure maximum of less than 2 ppm and an average of 0.15 ppm of volatile organic compounds over the course of 3 weeks and the active sampling did not have a result above the limit of detection across a large panel of possible volatile organic compounds. With the lack of detectable levels of contaminants, a more rigorous and lengthy sampling strategy would be needed to determine the composition of the volatile organic compounds that the office workers are exposed to and craft a risk assessment profile based on that data.

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