Citation

Hong HJ, Park SH, Lim HB, Lee CM. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020; 17(10): e17103385.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph17103385

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this study, a long-term health risk assessment was conducted for complex, multimedia exposure where the exposure duration was set for the leak of a hazardous chemical spilled after an accident. The study designed a virtual chemical accident scenario where 40 tons of benzyl chloride leaked in a factory inside the Ulsan Petrochemical Industrial Complex for one hour on 1 January 2017. Using a multimedia environmental dynamics model, benzyl chloride concentrations in air and soil were estimated. The time when the atmospheric concentration was less than or equal to the background concentration was recorded as the end point. An assessment of the cancer risk via soil ingestion was carried out after dividing the subjects into four age groups (0-9 years; 10-18 years; 19-65 years; >65 years). All age groups showed an increased cancer risk where the values exceeded 1.0 × 10-6. The 0-9 years age group showed the largest distribution (4.27% of the total area) with the highest maximum and mean values. The distribution maps for all age groups exhibited a trend towards the southeast of the accident site.

Language: en

Keywords

chemical leak; excess cancer risk; health risk assessment; multimedia exposure