Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 9:10:978354.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.978354. eCollection 2022.

Health risk assessment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a refinery in the southwest of Iran using SQRA method

Ladan Khajeh Hoseini  1 , Reza Jalilzadeh Yengejeh  2 , Maryam Mohammadi Rouzbehani  1 , Sima Sabzalipour  1
Affiliations

Health risk assessment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a refinery in the southwest of Iran using SQRA method

Ladan Khajeh Hoseini et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Oil industries, such as oil refineries, are important sources of volatile organic compound production. These compounds have significant health effects on human health. In this study, a health risk assessment is carried out on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the recovery oil plant (ROP) unit of a refinery in southwest Iran. It was performed using the SQRA method including respiratory risk for chronic daily intake (CDI) of VOCs and cancer risk and non-cancer risk indices. Five locations in the area of oil effluents and five locations in the refinery area (control samples) were considered for evaluation. The sampling was done according to the standard NIOSH-1501 and SKC pumps. The gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC/FID) method was used to extract VOCs. The cancer slope factor (CSF) and respiratory reference dose (RFC) were calculated in addition to the respiratory risk (CDI). The end result shows that a significant difference was observed between the concentrations of volatile organic compounds in the two groups of air (P < 0.05). The SQRA risk assessment showed that the risk levels of benzene for workers in the pit area were very high (4-5). Health hazard levels were also evaluated as high levels for toluene (2-4) and moderate levels for xylene and paraxylene (1-3). The cancer risk assessment of volatile organic compounds recorded the highest level of cancer risk for benzene in the range of petroleum effluents (>1). Also, a non-cancer risk (HQ) assessment revealed that benzene had a significant health risk in the range of oil pits (2-3). Based on the results, petroleum industries, including refineries, should conduct health risk assessment studies of volatile organic compounds. The units that are directly related to the high level of VOCs should be considered sensitive groups, and their employees should be under special management to reduce the level of exposure to these compounds and other hazardous compounds.

Keywords: SQRA method; environment; health risk assessment; refinery; volatile organic compounds.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The location of the Abadan oil refinery.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The comparison of the measured concentrations of VOCs in different study areas.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cluster analysis dendrogram for the correlation between the measured values of volatile organic compounds in the ROP unit of the refinery.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) The evaluated results for cancer risk (CR) levels. (B) The evaluated results for non-cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Keramati A, Nabizadeh Nodehi R, Rezaei Kalantary R, Nazmara S, Zahed A, Azari A, et al. . TVOCs and BTEX concentrations in the air of South Pars special economic energy zone. J Maz Univ Med Sci. (2016) 25:236–44. Available online at: http://jmums.mazums.ac.ir/article-1-6988-en.html
    1. Zheng H, Kong S, Yan Y, Chen N, Yao L, Liu X, et al. . Compositions, sources and health risks of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at a petrochemical industrial park along the Yangtze River. Sci Total Environ. (2020) 703:135505. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135505 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hu R, Liu G, Zhang H, Xue H, Wang X. Levels, characteristics and health risk assessment of VOCs in different functional zones of Hefei. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. (2018) 160:301–7. 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.05.056 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Megías-Sayago C, Lara-Ibeas I, Wang Q, Le Calvé S, Louis B. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal capacity of ZSM-5 zeolite adsorbents for near real-time BTEX detection. J Environ Chem Eng. (2020) 8:103724. 10.1016/j.jece.2020.103724 - DOI
    1. Mo Z, Lu S, Shao M. Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions and health risk assessment in paint and coatings industry in the Yangtze River delta, China. Environm Pollut. (2020) 269:115740. 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115740 - DOI - PubMed