METHOD FOR ASSESSING AND MANAGING HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH HEAVY METAL POLLUTION

摘要

A method for assessing and managing health risks of heavy metal pollution. The method includes: 1) investigation and analysis of environmental pollution; 2) population exposure analysis; 3) risk assessment and representation; 4) risk perception and estimate of acceptable level of risk; 5) identification of an overall boundary of risk management; 6) identification of priority pollutants; and 7) identification of a key population and a key managing point. The method panoramically analyzes the health risk taking into account multiple sources, multiple environmental media, multiple exposure routes, and multiple receptors. The method also integrates the risk assessment, public risk perception, public acceptable risk level, and risk management to establish a comprehensive risk management strategy.

主权项

1. A method for assessing and managing health risks of heavy metal pollution, the method comprising:
1) investigation and analysis of environmental pollution: conducting an investigation, the investigation comprising aspects as follows: a discharge of a waste from a pollution source, a distribution of nearby sensitive acceptors, regional environmental factors, and weather conditions; developing an environmental investigation scheme, the investigation scheme comprising: polluted species, an arrangement of sampling regions, a sampling frequency, and a sampling time; and testing environmental samples to acquire a spatial and temporal distribution of heavy metal pollutants in multiply environmental media; 2) population exposure analysis: identifying a potential high-risk population exposed to the heavy metal pollutants; analyzing exposure ways that are potentially hazard to public health; conducting a population exposure investigation in study regions to acquire exposure parameters of native populations; and estimating population exposure doses through different ways by applying an exposure analysis model disclosed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); 3) risk assessment and representation: based on a risk assessment model from US EPA, collecting toxicity data of heavy metal pollutants according to a “dose-response” relationship; identifying a cancer risk according to formula 1 and a non-cancer risk according to formula 2; and using the Monte Carlo method to conduct risk probability analysis and panorama analysis; cancer risk:
Risk=CDI×SF   Formula 1 in which, Risk representing an additional cancer risk for a life time; CDI representing a daily average chronic exposure dose; and SF representing a slop factor; non-cancer risk:HQ=CDIRfDFormula2 in which, HQ representing a hazard quotient; and RfD representing a reference dose; 4) risk perception and estimate of an acceptable level of risk: designing a questionnaire on a public perception of health risk by employing a psychometric paradigm; determining the number of samples; conducting the questionnaire in the study regions; analyzing the public perception of health risk caused by heavy metal pollutants; and estimating the acceptable level of risk; 5) identification of an overall boundary of risk management: for non-cancer risk, determining the risk is unacceptable when the hazard quotient is larger than or equal to 1, and the risk is acceptable when the hazard quotient is smaller than 1; for cancer risk, comparing a result of the population health risk assessment and the public acceptable level of risk, determining the overall boundary of risk management, and identifying whether the objective risk is acceptable by the public; 6) identification of priority pollutants: according to an analysis result of health risk of different heavy metals, selecting pollutants that are serious polluting and have a high risk level to public health as regional priority pollutants, the priority pollutants comprising pollutants of cancer risk having a higher risk level than the public acceptable level of risk, and pollutants of non-cancer risk having a higher value than the reference dose; and 7) identification of a key population and a key managing point: according to risk assessment results of different regions and different populations, employing a risk comparison analysis to indentify a high-risk population as a key population; conducting a panorama analysis of population health risk and investigation of population exposure, identifying a key exposure way causing health damages and a key factor affecting the level of risk as key points for population health risk management, and stipulating corresponding managing strategies.