Health Risk Assessment of A Heavy Metal Contaminated Site in Taiwan
Publication: Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 9, Issue 3
Abstract
Several farms on the north seashore of Taiwan were contaminated with cadmium and lead since the early 1980s. At the contaminated site, the average soil concentrations of cadmium and lead, analyzed in 1982 and 1996, ranged from and , respectively. In this study, the exposure and risk assessment were conducted using an environmental fate and transport model, RESRAD-CHEM, to estimate carcinogenic risk and noncarcinogenic risk for cadmium and lead on a population exposed to the pollutants. Using the concentration data of 1982, the RESRAD-CHEM model was able to appropriately estimate the residual concentrations of cadmium and lead for 1996. Since there were no carcinogenic slope factors available for several exposure pathways, the cancer risk assessment of cadmium was estimated using the inhalation pathway only. The estimated carcinogenic risks were 5.5–7.6 using the 1982 concentration data. The maximum hazard index was estimated to be 488 and significantly higher for residents living near the seashore than for residents living away from the seashore. The hazard index was found to be significantly correlated to the standard mortality ratio of nephritis for the local residents from 1982 to 1999 . The EPA of Taiwan should employ health risk management as a criterion for site remediation.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge C. R. Kiang of Central Geological Survey in the Republic of China for his help of hydrological data interpretation, and Dr. S. Y. Chen of Argonne National Laboratory for providing and assistance in the use of RESRAD-CHEM.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 9 • Issue 3 • July 2005
Pages: 167 - 172
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 9, 2004
Accepted: Mar 7, 2005
Published online: Jul 1, 2005
Published in print: Jul 2005
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