Health Risk Assessment of Atmospheric Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban-rural Juncture Belt Area
北京城乡结合地空气中挥发性有机物健康风险评价

A method for determining volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by cryogenic dynamic adsorption in solid adsorbent tubes, subsequent thermal desorption with cryofocusing in a cold trap and analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry was adapted. An internationally recognized four-step evaluation model of health risk assessment (HRA) was adapted to preliminarily assess the health risks caused by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban-rural juncture belt area in Beijing. Results of HRA indicated that non-carcinogenic risk indexes of VOCs are below 1 and non-carcinogenic risk indexes of aromatic substances range from 10-4-10-5, halohydrocarbons in the 10-4-10-1. Volatile pollutants would not cause non-carcinogenic health hazard to exposed population. However, the cancer risk index exposed to carcinogenic benzene was 2.21×10-5, which is higher than that suggested value of USEPA (1×10-6) and may cause potential harm to human health. The greatest health risk is in winter, followed by autumn, summer minimum.