title: Volatile compounds emission and health risk assessment during composting of organic fraction of municipal solid waste.
abstract: Degradation of mechanically sorted organic fraction (MSOF) of municipal solid waste in composting facilities is among the major contributors of volatile compounds (VCs) generation and emission, causes nuisance problems and health risks on site as well as in the vicinages. The aim of current study was to determine the seasonal (summer and winter) variation and human health risk assessment of VCs in the ambient air of different processing units in MSOF at composting plant in China. Average concentration of VCs was 58.50 and 138.03mg/m3in summer and winter respectively. Oxygenated compounds were found to be the highest concentration (46.78-91.89mg/m3) with ethyl alcohol as the major specie (43.90-85.31mg/m3) in the two seasons respectively. Nevertheless, individual non-carcinogenic (Hazard relation i.e HR<1) and carcinogenic risk (CR<1.0E-04) of the quantified VCs were within acceptable limit except naphthalene at biofilter unit. In addition, cumulative non-carcinogenic risk exceeded from the threshold limit both in summers and winters in all units except at biofilter unit during winter. Furthermore cumulative carcinogenic risk also exceeded at same unit during the summer season. Therefore special attention should be made to minimize cumulative non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk as people are well exposed to mixture of compounds, not to individual.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Muhammad Farooq
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Mustafa
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yanjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Miljoevej, Building 113, 2800Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Zhenhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Hanwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Sai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: luwenjing@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000388:Air / Q000032:analysis; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D000465:Algorithms; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000633:toxicity; D002681:China; D000076282:Composting; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D009281:Naphthalenes / Q000633:toxicity; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012621:Seasons; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D002273:Carcinogens; D009281:Naphthalenes; D062611:Solid Waste; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; C031721:naphthalene
keywords: Composting; GC–MS; Health risk; MSOF; Volatile compounds