Ambient BTEX Exposure and Health Risks at Gorakhpur, India. Inhalation Exposure & Health Risks of Ambient BTEX at different Microenvironments of a Terai Zone in North India

      Аннотация: In a study of ambient air at Gorakhpur, India, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene levels were 15.9, 28.2, 3.9 and 2.8 µg/m3 respectively. Highest BTEX exposure was in industrial and lowest in residential area. Toluene and Benzene represent about 96%, 92%, 83% and 91% of total BTEX at residential, agricultural, roadside & industrial areas respectively. Concentrations of BTEX in winter, summer and monsoon dominated in industrial area i.e. 74.7, 69.3 and 61.9 µg/m3 respectively, whereas lowest were in residential area i.e. 36.6, 24.6 and 22.1 µg/m3 respectively. Benzene levels everywhere and ethylbenzene at roadside exceeded the acceptable risk of 1E-06, posing significant cancer risk. However, HQ of non-cancer risk was equal or lower than 1 indicating no concern of increased health risk. Moreover, monitoring of BTEX was also performed at two roadside locations specifically as auto vehicles are the major cause for BTEX. The t-BTEX was 27.4 µg m-3 with median 22.2 µg m-3. Mean average of BTEX were 36.6, 31.2, 22.6 and 16.5 µg m-3 at 3m, 10m, 20m, and 30m respectively. Higher levels of BTEX were observed on weekdays as compared to the respective levels on weekends/holidays.

Ключевые слова: Ambient BTEX, Inhalation Exposure, Health Risks, BTEX Exposure