Impact of Fuel Switching to the Level of Air Toxic and its Potential Health Impact in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

The annual arithmetic mean concentrations of benzene and 1, 3-butadiene were gradually decreasing tendency from the year 2008 2011 at every monitoring stations in Bangkok. Dramatically decreasing of these air toxics, measured in the road curbside areas were found in the year 2012 when the Thais government implemented the improvement of fuel quality from Euro 2 to Euro 4 standards. Calculated cancer risk of benzene and 1, 3-butadiene dramatically decreased at every monitoring stations. The results indicated that the population was estimated to receive an excess lifetime cancer risk greater than 1 x 10-5, which is proposed as the permissible maximum value for individual excess lifetime cancer risk by the Japan Environmental Agency (JEA). However, cancer risk from air toxic was found significantly decreased in the year 2012. These finding elucidated the effectiveness of changing of fuel quality to the reduction of airborne air toxic concentration in Bangkok environment.

Benzene and 1, 3 Butadiene Concentration and Its Potential Health Impact in Chiang Mai, Thailand

“…The results indicated that the population was estimated to receive an excess lifetime cancer risk less than 1x10 -5 at two stations, which is proposed as the permissible maximum value by Japan Ministry of the Environment (Higashino, Mita, Yoshikado, Iwata, & Nakanishi, 2007;Thongkum & Thepanondh, 2014). However, the cancer risks in the year 2012 were found significantly decreased which indicated a success of utilization of better fuel quality to the reduction of air toxic concentration.…”

“…The excess lifetime cancer risk of the population was calculated as the product of the benzene level and the unit risk for benzene. The results indicated that the population was estimated to receive an excess lifetime cancer risk greater than 1.0x10 -5 , which is proposed as the permissible maximum value for individual excess lifetime cancer risk by the Japan Environmental Agency (JEA) (Thongkum & Thepanondh, 2014).…”