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Contribution of individual sources of volatile organic compounds to their cancer and non-cancer risks in the multi-industrial city of Ulsan, South Korea

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Abstract

Previous studies have investigated the major sources and health risks associated with atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, the spatial variability of the impact of their emission sources on health risks has rarely been studied. In this study, passive air sampling of VOCs was conducted at 24 sites in Ulsan, the largest industrial city in South Korea. Toluene exhibited the highest time-averaged concentration (6.37 µg/m3), followed by m,p,o-xylenes (4.69 µg/m3), ethyl acetate (3.26 µg/m3), and ethylbenzene (2.70 µg/m3). Higher concentrations of total (Σ59) VOCs and BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m,p,o-xylenes) were observed near industrial complexes. The mean cumulative (Σ11) cancer risk was 9.1E-6, with the highest contribution from benzene (4.7E-6), while the mean cumulative (Σ17) non-cancer risk was 2.6E-1, primarily driven by naphthalene (1.7E-1), suggesting the importance of carcinogenic VOCs. Five major sources were identified using the positive matrix factorization model, revealing the dominance of industrial activities. Both cancer and non-cancer risks were elevated in the petrochemical industrial complex, which is located close to densely populated areas. Consequently, prioritized management of VOC exposure to workers and residents is necessary for the petrochemical industrial complex and nearby residential areas.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020R1A6A1A03040570) and the Foreign Cooperation Project of Fujian Province (2020I0038). In addition, this work was motivated by a Preliminary feasibility study on health damage caused by the Ulsan Industrial Complex, supported by the Korean Ministry of Environment. We acknowledge EACL members at UNIST for sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil, Urban, Earth, and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

    Seong-Joon Kim, Sang-Jin Lee & Sung-Deuk Choi

  2. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Seoul, 07985, Republic of Korea

    Hyunjoo Kim

  3. Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Youwei Hong

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  1. Seong-Joon Kim
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Contributions

Seong-Joon Kim: Writing – original draft preparation. Sang-Jin Lee: Formal analysis and investigation. Hyunjoo Kim: Resources. Youwei Hong: Resources. Sung-Deuk Choi: Supervision, Project administration. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sung-Deuk Choi.

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Kim, SJ., Lee, SJ., Kim, H. et al. Contribution of individual sources of volatile organic compounds to their cancer and non-cancer risks in the multi-industrial city of Ulsan, South Korea. Air Qual Atmos Health (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-024-01554-x

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