Assessing Benzene and TVOC Pollution and the Carcinogenic and Noncarcinogenic Risks to Workers in an Industrial Plant in Southeastern Romania
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Study area and Methodology
2.1. Study Site
2.2. Data Series
2.3. Data Analysis
- (1)
- Compute the basic statistics (mean, minimum, maximum, coefficient of variation, and skewness) and plot the histograms and boxplots to determine the series characteristics and emphasize the shapes of the series distribution and possible outliers.
- (2)
- Apply the Anderson–Darling (AD) test [60] to test the hypothesis that the series is Gaussian against the hypothesis that the series is not normally distributed.
- (3)
- Apply the Fligner–Killeen (KF) test [61] to check the homoskedasticity of each time series. The null (alternative) hypothesis is that the series is homoskedastic (heteroskedastic). The choice of this nonparametric test was based on the research of Conover et al. [62], which shows that this test is better than the alternatives in terms of power and when the normality hypothesis is not satisfied.
- (4)
- (5)
- Apply the KPSS test [65] to test the null hypothesis of the series trend (or level) stationarity against its nonstationarity.
- (6)
- Test the hypothesis that the series has no change points (breakpoint) against the hypothesis that it has at least one by performing the Buishand [66], Pettitt [67], Lee and Heghinian [68] tests, and Hubert segmentation procedure [69]. A change point appears when the series changes the mean, variance, or distribution from which it arose. The first three tests can determine only the most probable breakpoint. Moreover, the Buishand and Lee and Heghinian tests can be performed only if the series is Gaussian. If the series fails the normality test but can reach it by a transformation, the changepoint tests are run on the transformed series; otherwise, only the Pettitt and Hubert procedures can be performed. KhronoStat 1.01 (Hydrosciences Montpellier, France) [70] was utilized to conduct the tests.
- (7)
- Apply the Kruskal–Wallis (K-W) test [71] to test if the series in a group originate from the same distribution against the alternative that at least one comes from a different distribution. When the null hypothesis was rejected, the post-hoc Dunn’s test [72], with the adjustment proposed by Hochberg [73], was run.
2.4. Modeling the VOC Series
2.5. Health Risk Assessment
- -
- (μg/m3) is the average daily concentration of VOCs;
- -
- is the daily exposure time, considered 8 h/day for all workers;
- -
- EF is the exposure frequency. EF has the following values function of the worker categories: (1) 350 days/year, (2) 340 days/year, (3) 325 days/year, (4) 340 days/year.
- -
- ED is the exposure duration. ED has the following values function of the worker categories: (1) 5 years, (2) 10 years, (3) 15 years, (4) 25 years.
- -
- is the average exposure time to noncarcinogenic risk, estimated at 74.8 years;
- -
- (μg/m3) represents the reference concentration of VOC species for the noncarcinogenic risk assessment.
- -
- , ET, EF, and ED have the same meaning and values as in Equation (3).
- -
- is the average time under exposure to carcinogenic risk, estimated at 70 years.
- -
- represents the inhalation unit risk of VOC species for carcinogenic risk assessment. A cumulative value of = 2.5 × 10−6 (μg/m3)−1 was considered in the computation of LCR for TCOVs.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Results of the Statistical Analysis
3.2. Models for the Benzene and TVOC Series
3.3. Health Risk Indicators
3.4. Discussions
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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VOC Species | (μg/m3) | (μg/m3)−1 | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
benzene(C6H6) | 30 | 7.8 10−6 | 37.00 |
toluene (C7H8) | 5000 | - | 14.00 |
ethylbenzene (C8H10) | 1000 | 2.5 10−6 | 7.50 |
styrene (C8H10) | 1000 | - | |
m-,p-xylene (C8H10) | 100 | - | 8.30 |
o-xylene (C8H10) | 100 | - | 1.80 |
1,2,3-trimethylbenzene (C9H12) | 60 | - | 3.00 |
n-hexane (C6H14) | 700 | - | 28.00 |
cyclohexane (C6H12) | 6000 | - | 0.10 |
Statistics | SB1 | SB2 | SB3 | SB4 | ST1 | ST2 | ST3 | ST4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mean | 15.50 | 4.36 | 14.89 | 4.42 | 40.26 | 41.16 | 37.19 | 38.39 |
stdev | 8.27 | 2.84 | 9.07 | 5.19 | 14.96 | 13.43 | 17.44 | 38.54 |
minimum | 4.61 | 0.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 16.80 | 22.84 | 9.78 | 0.42 |
maximum | 31.13 | 12.96 | 48.45 | 56.00 | 69.97 | 68.87 | 102.76 | 298.58 |
cv (%) | 53.35 | 65.13 | 60.92 | 117.28 | 37.17 | 32.63 | 46.88 | 101.15 |
skewness | 0.69 | 1.52 | 0.84 | 3.69 | 0.43 | 0.53 | 0.69 | 1.47 |
p-val | SB1 | SB2 | SB3 | SB4 | ST1 | ST2 | ST3 | ST4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
p-val AD | 0.0111 | 0.0207 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.2564 | 0.1450 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
p-val FK | 0.0421 | 0.5093 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.1202 | 0.4720 | 0.0000 | 0.0001 |
p-val MK/ (Sen’slope) | 0.0395/ (0.4775) | 0.0161/ (−0.1916) | 0.0013/ (0.0049) | 0.0040/ (−0.001) | 0.0106/ (1.2596) | 0.2059 | 0.4415 | 0.0000/ (−0.0151) |
p-val KPSS-level | 0.0825 | 0.0464 | 0.0100 | 0.0100 | 0.0336 | 0.1000 | 0.0100 | 0.0407 |
p-val KPSS-trend | 0.0691 | 0.0823 | 0.0100 | 0.0100 | 0.100 | 0.1000 | 0.0100 | 0.1000 |
Series | Threshold | Return Period | |||||||
2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 24 | ||||
SB1 | 13.2525 | −0.2714 | 5.55 | 46.13 | 46.99 | 47.55 | 48.26 | 49.31 | 50.18 |
SB2 | 2.7860 | 0.0005 | 5.55 | 20.09 | 21.22 | 22.02 | 23.16 | 25.09 | 27.03 |
ST1 | 42.8420 | −0.7807 | 16.2 | 70.75 | 70.84 | 70.89 | 70.94 | 71.00 | 71.03 |
ST2 | 39.9693 | −0.8323 | 19.35 | 67.18 | 67.23 | 67.26 | 67.30 | 67.33 | 67.35 |
Series | Threshold | Return Period | |||||||
2 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 50 | 100 | ||||
SB3 | 12.8678 | −0.2331 | 8 | 51.82 | 54.89 | 56.89 | 59.49 | 60.64 | 61.94 |
SB4 | 3.7235 | 0.2069 | 4.25 | 43.61 | 55.59 | 66.28 | 78.62 | 97.90 | 115.12 |
ST3 | 38.4456 | −0.6441 | 17.40 | 76.15 | 76.57 | 76.76 | 76.88 | 76.97 | 77.02 |
ST4 | 71.4874 | −0.5441 | 15.00 | 141.54 | 143.44 | 144.36 | 145.00 | 145.54 | 145.81 |
Species | Site | Health Index | Categ (1) | Categ (2) | Categ (3) | Categ (4) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Benzene | 1 | HI | 4.93 × 10−1 | 8.38 × 10−1 | 1.20 × 100 | 1.84 × 100 |
LCR | 1.23 × 10−4 | 2.09 × 10−4 | 3.00 × 10−4 | 4.62 × 10−4 | ||
2 | HI | 1.70 × 100 | 2.89 × 100 | 4.15 × 100 | 6.39 × 100 | |
LCR | 1.42 × 10−4 | 2.42 × 10−4 | 3.47 × 10−4 | 5.34 × 10−4 | ||
TVOCs | 1 | HI | 3.13 × 10−2 | 5.33 × 10−2 | 7.64 × 10−2 | 1.17 × 10−1 |
LCR | 8.38 × 10−5 | 1.42 × 10−4 | 2.04 × 10−4 | 3.14 × 10−4 | ||
2 | HI | 2.73 × 10−1 | 4.64 × 10−1 | 6.65 × 10−1 | 1.02 × 100 | |
LCR | 2.43 × 10−4 | 4.14 × 10−4 | 5.93 × 10−4 | 9.13 × 10−4 |
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Barbeş, S.-B.; Bărbulescu, A.; Barbeș, L. Assessing Benzene and TVOC Pollution and the Carcinogenic and Noncarcinogenic Risks to Workers in an Industrial Plant in Southeastern Romania. Toxics 2024, 12, 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12030187
Barbeş S-B, Bărbulescu A, Barbeș L. Assessing Benzene and TVOC Pollution and the Carcinogenic and Noncarcinogenic Risks to Workers in an Industrial Plant in Southeastern Romania. Toxics. 2024; 12(3):187. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12030187
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarbeş, Sebastian-Barbu, Alina Bărbulescu, and Lucica Barbeș. 2024. "Assessing Benzene and TVOC Pollution and the Carcinogenic and Noncarcinogenic Risks to Workers in an Industrial Plant in Southeastern Romania" Toxics 12, no. 3: 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12030187