Health Risk Assessment of Chemical Compounds in an Industrial Painting Workshop, Tehran, Iran
摘要
The present study scrutinizes health risk assessment of BTEX compounds and the variation of BTEX concentration during winter and spring 2022 in indoor air of a painting workstation located in Tehran, Iran. 54 samples were collected according to NIOSH 1501 manual in 3 sub-units. The mean concentrations of BTEX were 3863, 9057, 4097, and 11,471 µg.m−3, respectively. Though the mean concentration of benzene surpassed, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene fell within the acceptable range of occupational exposure standard limit (Benzene: 1600 µg.m−3, Toluene: 75,516 µg.m−3, Ethylbenzene: 87,024 µg.m−3, and Xylene: 435,081 µg.m−3). As the results showed, the majority of carcinogenic risks (CR) for benzene and ethylbenzene were estimated to be unacceptable. The highest CR was figured out in the painting area with 8.78E−03 for benzene in the winter season and 2.10E−03 for ethylbenzene in the spring season, respectively. Additionally, the mean CR values of benzene and ethylbenzene were calculated at 2.46E−03 and 8.35E−04, respectively. All non-carcinogenic hazards (HQ) of benzene and xylene exceeded maximum standard level recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in both seasons, meanwhile, HQs of toluene in winter were greater than 1. The mean HQ values for BTEX were benzene (2.94E + 01) > xylene (2.62E + 01) > toluene (4.07E−01) > ethylbenzene (9.35E−01). Our finding revealed the workers were more likely to be exposed to cancer health risks due to BTEX exposure thus, control measures should be defined to reduce the hazards raised by these chemicals at this workstation.