Abstract
This study was conducted to provide basic data for chemical accident response by assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure. The study considered the temporal concentration changes of the leaked chemical (i.e., its behavior in the environment and dilution) until its extinction. A virtual chemical accident was assumed, in which 40 t of formaldehyde was accidentally discharged for 1 h in Ulsan Metropolitan City, Korea. Formaldehyde concentrations over time in each environmental medium after the accident were calculated using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Exposure subjects divided into four age groups were considered. Carcinogenic risks due to respiration and non-carcinogenic risks due to soil intake were assessed. For all the age groups, the excess cancer risk did not exceed 1.0 × 10−6, indicating that no harmful health impact was caused by inhalation exposure to formaldehyde. The hazard index exceeded 1 for all the age groups, confirming that harmful health impacts were caused by exposure to soil containing the formaldehyde. This study is the first to assess chronic health risks by reflecting long-term residual and temporal concentration changes of a pollutant released in a chemical accident in each environmental medium until its extinction. This work is also significant in that it reflects the exposure characteristics of the toxic chemical.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Not applicable.
References
Hearn JD, Weber R, Nichols R, Henley MV et al (2013) Deposition of Cl2 on soils during outdoor releases. J Hazard Mater 252:107–114
KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) (2020) Meteorological Data Portal. https://data.kma.go.kr/cmmn/main.do. Accessed 2 Feb 2020
Lee JY, Kim SS, Yang WH, Yoon JH, Ryu JS et al (2018) Investigation of the guidance levels for protecting populations from chemical exposure and the estimation of the level of concern using acute toxicity data. J Environ Health Sci 44(1):44–54
Lee YA, Kim HS, Lee DS (2019) Evaluation using a multimedia fate and transport model of surface water pollution potential of organic chemicals accidentally released into air during a rainfall event; TH208. SETAC, Helsinki
MoE (Ministry of Environment) (2007) Korean exposure factors handbook
MoE (Ministry of Environment) (2012) Multi-media risk assessment of harmful substances (II) -formaldehyde-
MoE (Ministry of Environment) (2016) Korean exposure factors handbook for children
MoE (Ministry of Environment) (2018) 2016 Chemical Statistics Survey
NICS (National Institute of Chemical Safety) (2020) Chemical Information System. https://icis.me.go.kr. Accessed 31 Jan 2020
Park SH (2019) Development on chronic health risk assessment method for exposure of hazardous chemicals by chemical accident. Master’s Thesis. Seokyeong University
Park MK, Choi JH, Park HJ, Kang TS, Lee JD et al (2016) A study on concentration and correlation of VOCs, NO2 in the inside and outside of residential houses surrounding industrial complexes. J Odor Indoor Environ 15(1):84–91
Park SH, Yoon DK, Park TH, Hong HJ, Lee ES et al (2018) A study on the prediction of hazardous substance concentration in the indoor space by indoor inflow of chemical accident material. Proceedings of the Environmental Sciences 10:95–95
Pesatori AC et al (2003) Short-and long-term morbidity and mortality in the population exposed to dioxin after the ging chemical inc. Ind Health 41(3):127–138
QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System) (2020) https://www.qgis.org/en/site/. Accessed 4 Feb 2020
RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) (2013) Human risk assessment of single exposure in chemical incidents: present situation and emerging chemical incident scenarios. RIVM Report 2013;320300001
Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) (2018) 2017 Life Time Table
US EPA (United State Environmental Protection Agency) (2017) Update for chapter 5 of the exposure factors handbook—soil and dust ingestion, EPA/600/R-17/384F
US EPA (United State Environmental Protection Agency) (2020) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). https://www.epa.gov/iris. Accessed 4 Feb 2020
Funding
This work was supported by the Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through “The chemical Accident Prevention Technology Development Project,” funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MoE) (2017001970002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: C.M. Lee, S.H. Park
Data analysis: S.H. Park, H.B. Lim, H.J. Hong, D.K. Yoon, H.W. Lee
Modeling data calculation: H.S. Kim, E.M. Cho, Y.S. Cho, J.W. Choi
Health risk calculation: S.H. Park, H.B. Lim, H.K. Kong, J.I. Jeon
Writing—original draft: S.H. Park
Writing—review and editing: S.H. Park, H.B. Lim
Project administration: C.M. Lee
All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent to publish
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Park, SH., Lim, HB., Hong, HJ. et al. Health risk assessment for multimedia exposure of formaldehyde emitted by chemical accident. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 9712–9722 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11403-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11403-w