Health risk assessment for vehicle inspection workers exposed to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in their work place

Abstract

Inhalatory and dermal exposures of on-duty vehicle inspection workers to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Beijing were investigated from April 18 to May 17, 2011. Exposure levels to particulate PAHs for the vehicle inspection workers at gasoline, bus and diesel lines were found to be 56.07 ng m⁻³, 111.72 ng m⁻³ and 199.80 ng m⁻³, respectively. A probabilistic risk assessment framework was integrated with the toxic equivalence factors (TEFs) and the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) approaches to quantitatively estimate the exposure risk for vehicle inspection workers of the three work lines. The median values of inhalation risk were estimated to be 3.7 × 10⁻⁷, 5.0 × 10⁻⁷ and 1.37 × 10⁻⁶, respectively, while the median dermal ILCR values were 7.05 × 10⁻⁶, 6.98 × 10⁻⁶ and 1.28 × 10⁻⁵, respectively for gasoline, bus, and diesel inspection workers. Total ILCR was higher than the acceptable risk level of 10⁻⁶, indicating unacceptable potential cancer risk.