Abstract
Health risks assessment due to exposure to organic contaminated soil at an oil refinery out of service is conducted in this study by integrating health risk methods of U.S. EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency), ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and VROM (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in Netherlands), with the localized parameters using Chinese demographic characteristics and site features. The monitoring results show that the concentration of benzene, benzo(a)pyrene and benzo(a)anthracene in the soil of the site all exceed their risk screening values, respectively, with pollutants concentrated in soil 0.1–5.5 m beneath the surface. To estimate health risks of the site with the 95% upper confidence limit of the pollution, we focus on three major exposure pathways, namely, oral ingestion, dermal contact and breath inhalation, which indicates carcinogenic risk (CR) and non-carcinogenic hazard quotient (HQ) of the contaminated soil reach 9.59×10−5 and 15.46, respectively, exceeding the acceptable level of 10−5 and 1, posing severe health hazards to the residents at the site.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References Cited
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), 1996. Guidance Manual for Developing Site-Specific Soil Quality Remediation Objectives for Contaminated Sites in Canada (EB/OL). Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Canada. http://www.ccme.Ca/assets/pdf/sqg_site_sp_guidance.pdf
Castelli, M., Rossi, B., Corsetti, F., et al., 2005. Levels of Cadmium and Lead in Blood: An Application of Validated Methods in a Group of Patients with Endocrine/Metabolic Disorders from the Rome Area. Microchemical Journal, 79(1/2): 349–355
Chen, C. M., Liu, M. C., 2006. Ecological Risk Assessment on a Cadmium Contaminated Soil Landfill—A Preliminary Evaluation Based on Toxicity Tests on Local Species and Site-Specific Information. Science of the Total Environment, 1(3): 120–129
Chen, H. H., Chen, H. W., He, J. T., et al., 2006. Health-Based Risk Assessment of Contaminated Sites: Principles and Methods. Earth Science Frontiers, 13(1): 216–223 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Colin, C. F., 1999. Assessing Risk from Contaminated Sites: Policy and Practice in 16 European Countries. Land Contamination and Reclamation, 7(2): 33–54
Du, Y., Ge, X. M., 2009. Research Status on Genetic and Blood Toxicity of Benzene and Metabolin. Acta Medicinae Sinica, 22(3): 594–598 (in Chinese)
Fernández, M. D., Vega, M. M., Tarazona, J. V., 2006. Risk-Based Ecological Soil Quality Criteria for the Characterization of Contaminated Soils: Combination of Chemical and Biological Tools. Science of the Total Environment, 366: 466–484
Guo, G. L., Wang, S. J., Shi, L. Y., et al., 2010. Health Risk Analysis of VOC/SVOC Contaminated Soil in an Abandoned Chemical Plant. Environmental Science, 31(2): 397–402 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Hao, X. Z., Zhou, D. M., Si, Y. B., 2004. Revegetation of Copper Mine Tailings with Ryegrass and Willow. Pedosphere, 14(3): 283–288
Hu, E. B., 2009. Practical Technology and Method of Environmental Risk Assessment (the second edition). China Environmental Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
Kao, W. Y., Ma, H. W., Wang, L. C., et al., 2007. Site-Specific Health Risk Assessment of Dioxins and Furans in an Industrial Region with Numerous Emission Sources. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 145(3): 471–481
Li, P., He, J. T., Chen, H. H., et al., 2011. A Study of Contaminant Remediation Guidelines for Soil and Groundwater near an Insecticide Factory. Hydrogeology & Engineering Geology, 38(3): 98–103 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Luo, H., Tang, H. W., Du, J. L., et al., 2011. Research Status on Toxicity and Carcinogenic Mechanism of Benzo(a)pyrene. Practical Preventive Medicine, 18(4): 772–773 (in Chinese)
Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China (MHPRC), 2006. Chinese Health Statistics Yearbook 2006. People’s Medical Publishing House, Beijing (in Chinese)
National Academy of Sciences (NAS), 1983. Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
Robson, M., 2003. Methodologies for Assessing Exposures to Metals: Human Host Factors. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 56(1): 104–109
U.S. EPA., 1991. Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund: Human Health Evaluation Manual (Part C, Risk Evaluation of Remedial Alternatives), EPA/540/R-92/003 [EB/OL]. http://www.epa.gov
U.S. EPA., 1996. Soil Screening Guidance: Technical Background Document, Second Edition. (TBD) EPA/540/R-95/128, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, Washington D.C.
U.S. EPA., 2003. Fact Sheet for the RBCA Tool Kit for Chemical Releases [EB/OL]. U.S. EPA, Washington D.C.. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
Wu, J., Shen, G. X., Huang, S. F., 2005. A Review on Engineering Remediation Techniques for VOCs-contaminated Soils. Chinese Journal of Soil Science, 36(3): 430–435 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Zhang, H. J., Wang, X. R., Chen, C. Y., et al., 2010. The Health Risk Assessmentand Remediation Guide Limitvalue of Typical Chromium Slag Contaminated Sites. Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae, 30(7): 1445–1450 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Zhang, Y., Wu, Y. Z., Zong, L. G., et al., 2008. Health Risk Assessment: Case Study of a Brownfield Contaminated by POPs at Changzhou. Environmental Science & Technology, 31(7): 135–140 (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Zhao, H. Y., 2008. Comparative Research on Health Risk Assessment Technology of Csoil and RBCA: [Dissertation]. Tsinghua University, Beijing (in Chinese with English Abstract)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was supported by Three Gold City Real Estate Development Co. LTD., Wuhan (No. 2009046268).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hua, Y., Luo, Z., Cheng, S. et al. Health risks of organic contaminated soil in an out-of-service oil refinery site. J. Earth Sci. 23, 121–128 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-012-0237-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-012-0237-6