Phytoscreening for VOCs in Pregnant Residents' Homes, Metro Detroit Pilot Study

Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA was the site for a pilot study evaluating phytoscreening for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in residential yards. Brendan F. O’Leary collected data from 13 homes of pregnant participants, detecting five of six target VOCs across 15 plant species. The dataset, last updated on 2026-06-01, demonstrates the feasibility of using plants to characterize spatial patterns of VOC exposure.

Use Cases

• Assess participant willingness for environmental sampling based on the described recruitment of 20 pregnant participants.
• Compare VOC concentrations across plant tissue types based on the finding that leaves showed more frequent and higher detections than twigs.
• Investigate associations between plant VOC levels and proximity to brownfield sites based on the described analysis.
• Evaluate the detection frequency of specific VOCs like toluene, ethylbenzene, and trichloroethylene across sampled homes.

Strengths

• Data includes results from 13 sampled residences, indicating a completed pilot study.
• Five of six target VOCs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene) were detected across 15 plant species.
• Toluene was detected at all 13 homes and in 68% of samples, providing a clear signal of a common contaminant.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The sample size is small (13 residences), which limited the ability to find associations with brownfield proximity.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Phytoscreening (plant-based sampling) of residential front yards.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 05:35:57; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA