Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute cytotoxicity of typical VOCs mixture from decorative & building materials to human bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2Bin vitro.Methods Individual and the mixture of 12 often-detected VOCs from decorative materials were tested for their acute cytotoxicity to human bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B.BEAS-2Bis one of the adenovirus-12/SV40 hybrid virus immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell lines.Cytotoxicity was measured by detection of survival LC₅₀, reactive oxygen species (ROS) , and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) .Results The LC₅₀ of individual varied greatly from 0.70 g/Lto 22.8 g/L.But VOCs mixture showed a special cytotoxic profile-its LC₅₀ was 0.82 g/Land its clone survival LC₅₀ was 0.30 g/L.These results indicate that the VOCs mixture is superior than individual components, and this strong toxicity may be from addictive effects of those 12 individual components.VOCs also induced ROSproduction and LDHleakage from BEAS-2Bcells.The VOCs mixture increased more ROSproduction and LDHleakage than individual VOCs.Conclusion The VOCs mixture caused stronger cytotoxicity than individual components.VOCs induced cell death of BEAS-2Bby increasing ROSproduction and damaging cell membranes.Whereas lower dose of VOCs mixture had a transforming effect, the high dose of the mixture caused BEAS-2Bcell death.

Key words: volatile organic compounds(VOCs), human bronchial epithelial cell(BEAS-2B), acute toxicity