Source and health risk apportionment for PM2.5collected in Sha-Lu area,Taiwan

Özet

Many investigations have found that the effects of chemical composition of PM2.5plays an important role onhuman health. This study develops an air pollution source reduction strategy that apportions health risk amongdifferent emission sources by combining the receptor model and human health risk assessment technique. Thegoal is to identify emission source of PM2.5that have the greatest impact on human health. We establish a PM2.5sampling station in Sha-Lu, Taiwan. Five PM2.5pollution sources were identified in this study. They are steelindustry, residual oil combustion, road dust and traffic, coal-fired power plant, and glass production industry.The results of health risk assessment indicated that the metal contributes the most cancer risk is arsenic, followedby hexavalent chromium. The emissions of these two metals are closely related to coal-fired power plant. Wesuggested that the power plants should use coal with a low As and Cr content of coal in order to reduce the healthrisk associated with exposure to PM2.5. The limitation of this study is that only a small fraction of compoundswas measured in the samples. However, this study demonstrates that an analysis of the degree to which emissionsources contribute to health risks is a useful technique. Most importantly, it provides valuable information formaking environmental management decision.