Evaluation of Health Hazard Due to Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds from Various Processing Units of Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Hubert Byliński,Jacek Gębicki,Jacek Namieśnik

doi:10.3390/ijerph16101712

Abstract

The paper describes an attempt at health risk assessment and odour concentration determination in the most important units of a wastewater treatment plant. The cancer risk (CR) and hazard index (HI) parameters in selected measurement locations were calculated based on the results of chromatographic analyses (GCxGC-TOF-MS) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) guidelines. No exceedance of the CR and HI acceptable levels was observed for identified and quantitatively determined compounds from the VOCs group. The acceptable level was exceeded for the summary HI parameter. Following a classification of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), it was noticed that the highest hazard was connected to the presence of formaldehyde belonging to group 1—the compounds regarded as carcinogenic. Based on the olfactometric analyses, it was estimated that the highest odour concentration, 37.2 ou/m3, occurred at the solid waste composting piles. It was also revealed that an increase in odour concentration corresponded to a higher health risk for employees of the wastewater treatment plant, due to exposure to volatile odorous compounds. Accordingly, this method of odour measurement can be a fast indicator describing health risk level.

Highlights

Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), despite their beneficial contribution to environmental protection, are recognised as one of the potential emission sources of atmospheric pollutants [1,2,3,4]
Based on the guidelines proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency [23] and the classification of potentially carcinogenic compounds implemented by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), this paper presents health risk parameters of cancer risk (CR) and hazard index (HI) determined for 5 selected compounds, which have been found to impose carcinogenic risks, and for 24 selected compounds, which have been found to impose non-carcinogenic risks
Aliphatic hydrocarbons (24.8%—summer seasons, 23.1%—spring seasons) dominate in the air samples from the biological reactors area. They are characterised by much lower odour nuisance than aromatic hydrocarbons or organosulphur compounds, which is reflected in lower values of olfactory threshold that can be found in the literature [31]

Summary

Introduction

Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), despite their beneficial contribution to environmental protection, are recognised as one of the potential emission sources of atmospheric pollutants [1,2,3,4]. The main group of compounds emitted from the treatment plants are volatile organic compounds [5,6]. Their presence in ambient air can result in the discomfort of the plant’s employees as well as the residents of neighbouring areas, even when those compounds are present at very low concentration levels. Some of these compounds can cause a number of psychosomatic symptoms such as anxiety, stress, headache and dizziness, nausea, loss of consciousness. The wastewater stream is usually subjected to mechanical treatment where solid waste, grease and small mineral fractions are removed

Methods

Results

Conclusion