Spatio-temporal analysis for selected VOC species associated with health risk assessment for pre-, during, and post-pandemic periods in Telangana, India

Abstract

Abstract An unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, prompted strict lockdowns and reduced anthropogenic activity, which result in a reduction of air pollutants emissions. The substantial impact on the atmosphere associated with human health issue needs attention to be correlated with the selected Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and health risk assessment for pre-, during, and post-pandemic. The present study demonstrates the changes in anthropogenic emissions of benzene, toluene, and mp-xylene (BTX) and their health risk assessment during the lockdown periods. The present results show the mean concentration of TVOCs at all monitoring stations was found to be 12.15±20.49, 8.08±5.50, and 5.12±7.56 µg/m3 for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021 respectively. The TVOCs concentration was observed to decline, which considered the lockdown for the year 2020 as the corresponding year 2019. The Lifetime Cancer Risk (LCR) values for all monitoring stations for benzene were higher in children than in males and females for pre-, during, and-post lockdown periods. The LCR values for benzene were found to be 1.57 x 10-6, 1.73 x 10-6, and 9.67 x 10-7 for male, 1.83 x 10-6, 2.02 x 10-6 , and 1.13 x 10-6 for female, and 3.04 x 10-6, 3.37 x 10-6 , and 1.88 x 10-6 for children respectively. The findings of the present study could be scaled up nationwide and might be useful in formulating air pollution reduction policies and health assessments in the future.