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. 2024 Aug 29;12(9):634.
doi: 10.3390/toxics12090634.

Temporal Variation and Industry-Specific Differences of the Use of Volatile Organic Compounds from 2018 to 2023 and Their Health Risks in a Typical Industrially Concentrated Area in South China

Yijia Guo  1 , Lihua Zhu  1 , Liyin Zhang  1 , Xinxin Tang  2 , Xinjie Li  2 , Yiming Ge  2 , Feng Li  1 , Jilong Yang  1   3 , Shaoyou Lu  2 , Jinru Chen  1 , Xiaotao Zhou  1
Affiliations

Temporal Variation and Industry-Specific Differences of the Use of Volatile Organic Compounds from 2018 to 2023 and Their Health Risks in a Typical Industrially Concentrated Area in South China

Yijia Guo et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

The risk of occupational exposure to organic solvents varies across industries due to factors such as processing materials, ventilation conditions, and exposure duration. Given the dynamic nature of organic solvent use and occupational exposures, continuous monitoring and analysis are essential for identifying high-risk hazards and developing targeted prevention strategies. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the use of organic solvents and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in different industries in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, China, from 2018 to 2023, to understand their temporal variation and industry-specific differences and to identify high-risk occupational hazards. This study includes 1335 organic solvent samples, used by 414 different industry enterprises, and 1554 air samples. The result shows that the usage of organic solvents in various industries decreased with the outbreak of the pandemic and, conversely, increased as the situation improved. The most frequently detected volatile components in organic solvents were alkanes, followed by aromatic hydrocarbons. The ratios of the detection frequency of VOCs to the total number of detected categories increased year by year after 2020, indicating a tendency towards reduction and concentration of the types of organic solvents used in industrial production. Among the 8 high-risk VOCs, toluene (22.5%), n-hexane (22.0%), xylene (16.1%), and ethylbenzene (15.3%) have relatively high detection rates, suggesting that they need to be focused on in occupational health. Through air samples, the results show that trichloroethylene and xylene pose a high risk to human health (HQ > 1). We recommend that industry should strengthen monitoring of these two VOCs.

Keywords: Shenzhen; industries; occupational hazards; organic solvents.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The number (A) and proportion (B) of organic solvent samples across different industries from 2018 to 2023.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Composition of organic solvents in different industries’ samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The number (A) and detection frequency (B) of VOCs in various organic solvents from 2018–2023.
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