The effects of risk awareness and management on the risk of farmers due to arsenic contamination and on the cost of site management.
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Ho, Tzu-Hui
Abstract
Sixty three hectares of land located north of Dadu Road, west of Daye Road and east of New Kweizhiken Creek has been found polluted by arsenic according to the research report by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Taipei City Government. The contaminant is believed coming from the irrigation water drawn from arsenic-containing spring water and being accumulated in the soil of farmlands.
Rice and various vegetables are still being planted in this area currently. Arsenic in the soil may pose undesirable health effects to the farmers and other people who consume the agricultural products in which the arsenic is accumulated through absorption from the soil. The purpose of this study were to investigate the farmers’dietary patterns, perception of the possible risk, and the possible change of behavior after the acknowledging of the
potential risk; and to establish some site-specific parameters in the calculation of exposure, assess the health risk of farmers before and after the risk acknowledgement. The reduction of health risk and the cost of some risk education or risk management strategies were compared.
Total 22 farmers residing in the area specified as Fong-nen Section #1, Beitou District, who is supposed to be under highest risk due to soil pollution, were interviewed. Potential risks of individuals were estimated with some exposure factors derived from the results of the field survey. Major portion of the potential risk comes from the uptake of vegetables grown on the site. The average lifetime cancer risk is 5.64 x 10-4 and the non-cancer hazard quotient is 3.16, which all exceed the acceptable risk suggested by the Environmental Protection Administration (ROC) as a criterion of being classified as a remediation site.
The results of interviewing indicate that farmers will not change their dietary habits even they have been notified the health risk of consuming the vegetables through media and personal communication. The results also indicate that higher intensity of education and persuasion given by the
governmental authorities should be able to change their dietary and farming behaviors and reduce their health risk. With the application of risk assessment as a tool the results of this study enable us to evaluate the benefits (e. g., reduction of risk) and cost of several strategies and formulate the best controlling measure to achieve the goal of managing the risk posed by arsenic-contaminated soil.
Subjects
arsenic
soil pollution
Guan-Du Plain
exposure pathways
risk management
risk assessment
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-99-P97541204-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):ca3916b52e93005f849e670fe800255e