Abstract
National Institute of Environmental Research, Incheon, KoreaABSTRACTObjectives: Perchloroethylene (PCE) is a volatile chemical widely used as a solvent in the dry-cleaning andtextile processing industries. It was evaluated as Group 2 “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the IntegratedRisk Information System (IRIS) of the United State Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) in 2012. Inorder to provide a scientific basis for establishing risk management measures for chemicals on the nationalpriority substances list, aggregate risk assessment was conducted for PCE, included in the top-10 substances.Methods: We conducted the investigation and monitoring of PCE exposure (e.g., exposure scenario, detectionlevels, and exposure factors, etc.) and assessed its multi-media (e.g., outdoor air, indoor air, and ground water)exposure risk with a deterministic and probabilistic approach. Results: In human risk assessment (HRA), the level of human exposure was higher in the younger age group.The exposure level through inhalation at home was the highest among the exposure routes. Outdoor air or uptakeof drinking water represented less than 1% of total contributions to PCE exposure. These findings suggested thatthe level of risk was negligible since the Hazard Index (HI) induced by HRA was below one among all agegroups, with a maximum HI value of 0.17 when reasonable maximum exposure was applied. Conclusion: In conclusion, it was suggested that despite low exposure risk, further studies are neededconsidering main sources, including occupational exposure. Keywords: Monte-carlo method, Perchloroethylene, Risk assessment
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