Abstract
We measured a wide range of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) simultaneously at five sites over four seasons in 2009–2010 in Ulsan, the largest industrial city in Korea. Target analytes included volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbonyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, and heavy metals (HMs). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the occurrence and spatiotemporal distributions of HAPs, and to identify important HAPs based on health risk assessment. Industrial emissions affected ambient levels of VOCs and HMs, as demonstrated by spatial distribution analysis. However, concentrations of PAHs and phthalates were relatively uniform at all sites. VOCs and HMs exhibited little seasonal variation, while formaldehyde increased in the summer due to its secondary formation. PAHs exhibited notable seasonal variation; higher in cold seasons and lower in warm seasons. Cumulative cancer risks imposed by 35 HAPs were 4.7 × 10−4 and 1.7 × 10−4 in industrial and residential areas, respectively. The top five major cancer risk drivers appeared to be formaldehyde, benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, As, and Co. The sums of hazard quotients (HQ) derived by 47 HAPs were 10.0 (industrial) and 2.4 (residential). As the individual species, only two HAPs exceeded the HQ of 1, which are As (3.1) and Pb (2.1) in the industrial area. This study demonstrated the importance of a comprehensive monitoring and health risk assessment to prioritize potentially toxic pollutants in the ambient air of a large industrial city.
Highlights
Various classes of organic and inorganic chemicals belong to the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) category, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, pesticides, phthalates, and heavy metals (HMs) [12,13,14]
Formaldehyde, and TCE were the VOCs of utmost concern because of their carcinogenic nature and ubiquity [46,49,57]
Spatial and seasonal variations in the ambient levels of HAPs were investigated, and the measured data were used for health impact assessment with respect to cancer and noncancer risks
Summary
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs, often known as air toxics) have become a concern in many countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], largely due to public awareness of the importance of environmental health [8,9,10,11].According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), HAPs are defined as pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or have adverse effects on ecology or the environment [10].Atmosphere 2020, 11, 547; doi:10.3390/atmos11050547 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphereVarious classes of organic and inorganic chemicals belong to the HAP category, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, pesticides, phthalates, and heavy metals (HMs) [12,13,14]. Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs, often known as air toxics) have become a concern in many countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], largely due to public awareness of the importance of environmental health [8,9,10,11]. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), HAPs are defined as pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or have adverse effects on ecology or the environment [10]. Long-term exposure to various HAPs, even at low ambient levels, may have adverse effects on human health and the environment due to their nonthreshold nature of toxicity as well as the combined risk caused by exposure to multiple pollutants [9,13,16].
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