Ambient Air Pollution and Population Health Risks in a Contaminated Area of a Large Industrial Center

Abstract

Background: People living in the vicinity of large industrial enterprises are known to be exposed to adverse anthropogenic fac­ tors. Ambient air pollution is one of the main health risks for the population residing in the areas of oil refining and petrochemical industries. In the study district of the city of Samara, the priority air contaminants, principally emitted by motor vehicles and industrial premises, include sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide, hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, and benzene. Objective: To assess health risks for the population heavily exposed to airborne chemicals in the city of Samara. Methods: The study was conducted in 2018–2020 in the Kuybyshevsky district of Samara, Russian Federation. Its first stage included hazard identification, i.e. detection of potentially adverse factors, ranking of priority air pollutants having both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects and subject to subsequent risk characterization, and the analysis of xenobiotic con­ centrations in 7,568 ambient air samples. The next stage included population health risk assessment, the results of which were summarized to group the levels of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks by pollutants, routes and pathways of exposure, and target organs. Results: We established that the total carcinogenic risk for the population of the industrial district lay within the second rangeof reference limits and was mainly attributed to inhalation exposure to hexavalent chromium and benzene. The total non-car­ cinogenic hazard index in the community was < 3 for the group of priority pollutants consisting of sulfur oxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrocarbons, and benzene emitted by local oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Conclusions: We obtained permissible risk values for all ambient air contaminants of the industrial district of Samara taken separately. In view of multiplicity of airborne pollutants, however, it is expedient to consider health risks from their combined exposure.