Health risk assessment of PCDD/F emissions from municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) in China

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the environmental impacts of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/Fs) emitted from two typical municipal solid-waste incinerators (MSWIs), named M and L, in China. The main differences between the two MSWIs relate to incineration technologies, treatment capacities, emission standards and meteorological conditions. The distribution of PCDD/Fs in the surrounding ambient air and soils of the MWSIs were monitored and compared. In addition, air dispersion models and health risk assessments were combined to determine the behaviour and transport of PCDD/Fs. The results indicated that higher PCDD/F emission levels resulted in higher concentrations in the surrounding environment. The average PCDD/F levels emitted from the M MSWI was about seven times higher than those emitted from the L MSWI and about 10 times and 2 times higher in air and soils, respectively. The simulation results were similar to the trend of the monitored results. Both the observed and the simulation results suggested that the atmospheric pollution by PCDD/F surrounding the M MSWI was relatively serious; the environmental impact of the L MSWI was not significant.

Contamination characteristics, coexistence relationships and health risk assessment of dioxins and metals in topsoil around municipal solid waste incinerator in Hainan, China

“…To better compare the results with available data, the total dioxins I-TEQ concentrations in soils are summarized in Figure 4. For MSW incinerator emission sources (see Figure 4A), the total I-TEQ values in soils near the studied MSW incinerator are close to or smaller than that in most other studies, such as the research focused on Beijing (Li W. et al, 2014), Hangzhou (Jin et al, 2012), Shanghai (Deng et al, 2011), Northern Taiwan (Wang et al, 2008) in China and Moscow Parks (Shelepchikov et al, 2011) in Russia. The potential reason might be that the studied MSW incinerator is located in the suburb of Qionghai (a city of Hainan Province), which has the low level of industrialization, and small number of large-scale industrial plants (Xu et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2016), therefore largely reducing the impact of other anthropogenic emission sources on the pollutant concentrations in soils (Guo et al, 2012).…”

Baseline Soil Dioxin Levels from Sites Where Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Construction Is Planned throughout China: Characteristics, Sources and Risk Assessment

“…These findings imply that in most cases, the baseline levels of dioxins in soils surrounding the pre-construction MSW incineration plants are relatively low, but this will also affect the accuracy of soil contamination assessment after MSW incineration. Compared with the literature on operated MSW incineration plants (Figure 3c), the I-TEQ concentrations of dioxins near the studied pre-construction MSW incineration plants are mostly close to or lower than those around the operated MSW incineration plants in other regions, such as Sichuan [11], Shanghai [56], Zhejiang [57] and East region [15] in China and Sant Adrià del Besòs in Spain [58] and Rimini in Italy [59]. Notably, in some cases, the I-TEQ concentrations of dioxins under this study are greater than those surrounding the operated MSW incineration plants of Tianjin in China [60], Spain [18,25,61] and Rimini in Italy [59].…”

“…Figure 3. Comparative analysis of studies on the I-TEQ levels of dioxins in (a) background soils, (b) other baseline soils, (c) soils around operated MSW incineration plants and (d) soils for other land uses[11,15,17,18,20,25,[27][28][29]31,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70].Furthermore, the maximum acceptable levels of different land use listed in the international soil guidelines and regulations[71] are utilized for comparison with the I-TEQ concentrations in this study. The comparison results show that (1) the I-TEQ concentrations of all samplings are below the US and China guideline values (i.e., 1000 and 40-400 ng I-TEQ/kg)[38,72]; (2) the I-TEQ concentrations of approximately 91.29% of soil samples in this study are lower than the strictest Canadian guideline value (i.e., 4 ng I-TEQ/kg) for agricultural, residential/parkland, commercial and industrial uses[73]; and (3) approximately 97.18% and 93.68% of soil samples have lower contamination levels than the guideline values of Dutch, Swedish and German for agricultural land use (i.e., 10 and 5 ng I-TEQ/kg)[74][75][76].…”

“…Figure 3. Comparative analysis of studies on the I-TEQ levels of dioxins in (a) background soils, (b) other baseline soils, (c) soils around operated MSW incineration plants and (d) soils for other land uses[11,15,17,18,20,25,[27][28][29]31,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70].…”

Exposure to a continuous low dose of tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin impairs the development of the tooth root in lactational rats and alters the function of apical papilla-derived stem cells

“…1 Environment contamination by dioxins has rapidly increased in China and represents a significant risk to public health and safety. 2 For example, the development of hard tissue, the tooth in particular, is highly sensitive to dioxin toxicity which is readily transmitted to offspring during gestation or by breast milk. 3 Tooth and bone development are genetically programmed but are susceptible to environmental factors.…”