Determination of local adherence factor of soil to skin and assessment of health risk for children around a soil contaminated site
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Hu, Han-Jung
Abstract
Contaminants in soil and dust may cause adverse health effects on human through soil ingestion and dermal contact exposure routes. Hand-to-mouthing behaviors could lead children under six years old to greater health risk than adults. For the dermal contact of the exposure route, the soil adherence factor is a major parameter influencing the exposure risk assessment. Some studies also showed that contaminant is easy to adsorb in soil with small particle size. However, researches pertaining to establishing the local data of soil adherence factor for children under six years old in Taiwan were still missing. Using the published soil adherence data from U.S.EPA may over- or under-estimate the risk result of children in Taiwan. This study attempts to establish the local adherence factor for children under six years old in Taiwan. The tested soil with a clay texture was obtained from field sampling, and the potentially influencing factors of dermal contact on soil adherence were evaluated. The tendency of particle size variation by transferring from soil to hand and hand to mouth was also investigated by hand-press trial experiments. Moreover, the obtained adherence factor was used assess the children health risk in Guandu Plain, a contaminated site in Northern Taiwan. The experimental results revealed that several factors substantially influencing the adherence factor, including activity, clothing, soil moisture content, and contact pressure. Larger exposure area of body surface and high intensity of activity led children to higher exposure risk. The sizes of particles transferred from soil to hand and hand to mouth are mainly less than 150 μm. Results of the study can not only be regarded as a reference to the children health risk assessment of contaminated sites, but also provide the suggestions on strategy and measurement in the risk management.
Subjects
adherence factor
dermal contact
soil particle size transfer
health risk assessment
Guandu Plain
SDGs
Type
thesis
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ntu-104-R02541212-1.pdf
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