Dataset for airborne PCBs and OH-PCBs inside and outside urban and rural U.S. schools

This dataset from the Iowa Superfund Research Program (ISRP) includes indoor and outdoor air mass, concentration, and associated quality control of PCBs and OH-PCBs in two rural schools and four urban schools, the latter near a PCB-contaminated waterway of Lake Michigan in the United States. Samples (n=108) were collected as indoor/outdoor pairs using PUF-PAS from January 2012 to November 2015. Samples were analyzed using GC/MS-MS for all 209 PCBs and 72 OH-PCBs. Concentrations inside schools were 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than outdoors and ranged from 0.5 to 194 ng/m3 (PCBs) and from 4 to 665 pg/m3 (OH-PCBs). Congener profiles were similar within each sampling location across season but different between schools and indicated the sources as Aroclors from building materials and individual PCBs associated with modern pigment.