Workers' exposures and potential health risks to air toxics in a petrochemical complex assessed by improved methodology.
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to comprehensively evaluate workers' potential health risks of exposure to 39 air toxics in the Ta-sher Petrochemical Complex.


METHODS
Open-Path Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) was used to measure concentrations of air toxics. We used the measured worksite concentrations between 1997 and 1999 at 11 companies in the petrochemical complex, employing 3,100 on-site workers. The 39 measured air toxics included 10 chemicals with acute reference exposure levels (RELa), 19 chemicals with chronic reference exposure levels (RELc), and 3 chemicals classified as Class 1 or 2A human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). We then used RELa to calculate the hazard index of acute health effects (HI ( A )) for workers in individual plants. We also calculated the hazard index of chronic health effects (HIc) and cancer risks for all workers in the entire petrochemical complex.


RESULTS
Workers in five companies had HI ( A ) greater than 1 because of toluene, benzene, methyl ethyl ketone, chloroform and isopropanol exposures. Workers in this petrochemical complex had HIc greater than 1 because of acrylonitrile, 1,3-butadiene, hydrogen cyanide, and n,n-dimethylformamide exposures. Risk of hematopoietic system cancer because of benzene and ethylene oxide exposure, and respiratory system cancer because of 1,3-butadiene exposure was estimated to be 3.1-6.1 x 10(-4) and 5.2-7.1 x 10(-4), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicated that workers in the petrochemical complex might have excess cancer and noncancer risks due to acute or chronic exposures to air toxics from multiple emission sources.
Chan
Chang-Chuan
CC
Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Rm. 1447, No. 1, Sec. 1, Jen-ai Rd., Taipei, Taiwan. ccchan@ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw
Shie
Ruei-Hao
RH
Chang
Ta-Yuan
TY
Tsai
Dai-Hua
DH
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000506:poisoning*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D009369:Neoplasms; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010578:Petroleum; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013624:Taiwan
D000393:Air Pollutants; D010578:Petroleum