Seeking Potential Anomalous Levels of Exposure to PCDD/Fs and PCBs through Sewage Sludge Characterization

Abstract

An approach to detect anomalies in the exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) throughout the food chain is presented. The proposed method is useful also for preventing soil contamination by POPs that would require a remediation intervention. A steel making plant and its surrounding area were selected as a case-study. To investigate the possible effects of the plant on the settled population, sewage sludge samples from four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were taken: one of these was chosen as reference for the population exposed to the emissions of the mill; the remaining three plants were chosen to provide background information about the POP content in sludge. No clear anomalies in dioxins (PCDD/Fs) were detected for the potentially exposed population. In terms of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), the steel plant-influenced WWTP showed a total concentration between 2.7 and 4.8-time higher than the other plants; in terms of equivalent toxicity, only slightly higher concentrations were found for the steel plant-influenced WWTP. Therefore, if considering acceptable the daily intake from the diet of the unexposed population, the absence of a dioxin and dioxin-like emergency in the area of the mill is demonstrated. This method represents an innovative and technically simple tool to assess situations of permanent exposure to POP levels that are higher than the background. throughout the human body [16,12], showing the significant role of bioaccumulation. Journal of Bior emediation & BiodegradationThe presence of organic [17,18] and inorganic [19,20] hazardous substances in sewage sludge has been object of investigation in several studies. Sewage sludge has also been studied as potential source of energy [21][22][23][24][25][26], and as raw material for conventional [27,28] and nonconventional products [29,30]. In addition to these applications, sewage sludge can be also used as source of information to seek potential anomalous levels of exposure of a population to POPs: indeed, the dominant exposure route of POPs released by the most important sources (e.g. steel making plants) is the emission into the atmosphere, the atmospheric deposition to farmlands and pastures, the consequent contamination of the food produced, the intake by humans, the excretion, the transportation to WWTPs and the POP concentration in sewage sludge; thus, analyses on the POP content of sludge samples offer an alternative, inexpensive and technically simple approach to assess the existence of critical situations of exposure to POPs. Several studies focused on the ambient air and deposition monitoring in areas where steel making plants were present and highlighted their evident influence in terms of PCDD/F contribution in the surroundings [31][32][33]. The present study is then intended to propose a methodology, in order to detect anomalies throughout the food chain, as a consequence of the release of POPs in air from significant sources and their subsequent deposition to farmlands and pastures.This study focuses on a ste...

Criteria for the Assessment of Health Risk from a Waste Gasification Plant

“…Management of atmospheric pollutants from waste incineration processes: The case of Bozen [21] Characterization of metals in air and soil near a steel making plant in the North part of Italy [22] Characterization of the PCDD/F in the Province of Trento [23] PCDD/Fs in the soils in the province of Trento: 10 years of monitoring [24] Assessment of the local role of a steel making plant by POPs deposition measurements [25] Assessing the influence of local sources on POPs in atmospheric depositions and sediments near Trento (Italy) [26] State of the art and advances in the impact assessment of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds [27] Seeking Potential Anomalous Levels of Exposure to PCDD/Fs and PCBs through Sewage Sludge Characterization [28] Methodology for the human health risk assessment from the thermoelectric plants [29] A contribution for a correct vision of health impact from municipal solid waste treatments [30] Environmental and Climate Technologies ____________________________________________________________________________ 2023 / 27…”

“…Analyzing the concentration of POPs and PAHs at different depths allows revealing if past events concurring to change the emissive contribution of a nearby industrial plant (e.g., shutdown/operation periods, adoption of improved air pollution control technologies) have positive/negative consequences on the local environment. Another publication suggests that the analysis of the PCDD/F content in dewatered sewage sludge may be an interesting method to quickly identify potential anomalous levels of exposure to POPs in the food chain [28]. Like the previous monitoring methodologies, sewage sludge analysis may be also used to characterize the population exposure before the construction of a potential emitter of POPs.…”