Health risk assessment of chemical substances from removing of old environmental loads

Health risk assessment of chemical substances from removing of old environmental loads Introduction. Hazardous wastes from refineries stored in lagoons are old environmental loads. One way of remediation is to extract and process this waste to an alternative fuel. Emissions of harmful substances released into the atmosphere during extraction and processing of waste can negatively affect the health of exposed persons. Aim of this study was to evaluate the potential level of health risks from remediation of old environmental loads based on the detected concentration levels of selected substances in the air and to build a view of potential health risk stratification in the wider area. Methods. Among the contaminants were monitored sulphur dioxide, toluene, hydrogen sulphide and 16 representatives of PAHs (acenaphthene, acenaphtylene, anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, dibenz(ah)anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene, benzo[a]pyrene, fluoranthene, fluorene, chrysene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene, naphthalene phenanthrene, and pyrene). For that purpose was used combination of air pollutant concentrations and the dispersion model of substances in environment. The monitoring of contaminants was realized in the place of old environmental loads and in the nearby residential area...