Air concentrations of volatile organic acids in confined animal buildings-determination with ion chromatography

In this study, the air concentration of organic acids were determined in sa mples collected from eight different animal buildings differing in building design, housing system and animals species. The samples were enriched with membrane enrichment technique and analyzed with ion-exclusion chromatograp hy. Lactic, formic, acetic, propionic, iso-butyric, butyric, iso-valeric an d valeric acids were found. The number of individual acids varied among the buildings. The highest total amounts of acids was found in an insulated sw ine building in which all of the analyzed acids were detected. The found co ncentrations of organic acids can not be considered as harmful to human hea lth. However, together with other air pollutants organic acids creates an e nvironment that is unhealthy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.