Characteristics and health risk assessment of VOCs from typical hot pot restaurants in Chongqing, China

Abstract

As one of the most important cuisines, hotpot has been popular in China for a long time. However, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from such activities are scarcely researched, and their threat to practitioners remains unknown. In this study, five hotpot restaurants of varying sizes in Chongqing were selected to investigate the emission characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), assess their ozone generation potential (OFP) and secondary organic aerosol generation potential (SOAp), and evaluate the associated health risks for practitioners. The results showed that the concentration range of TVOCs was 401.7–2199.7 µg m⁻³. OVOCs were the major components and accounted for about 48.0–96.5%. Ethanol was the largest contributor accounting for 24.7–91.5%. The proportion of alkanes in small and medium scale hotpot restaurants was also high and showed a contribution of 29.1–34.0%. The OFP values fell in the range of 1131.7–3805.3 µg m⁻³, and ethanol and formaldehyde were the two highest contributors. For the potential of SOA formation, aromatic hydrocarbons yielded the highest contribution and accounted for more than 78%. Meanwhile, the human health risk assessment showed both non carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for those practitioners, in which the risk value of formaldehyde ranged from 1 × 10⁻⁵–1 × 10⁻⁴ and indicated rather high probability of carcinogenic risk.