Investigating conformity of risk assessment results for chemical contaminants exposure in two methods with and without air monitoring in the chemical industry

Abstract

Abstract Objective: The traditional method of contaminants assessment is very time consuming and costly according to the results of air monitoring and risk estimation. One of the effective options for assessing and estimating the risk of exposure to chemicals in the process design stage and then determining the risk rating. Using exposure indicators without air monitoring results and this is achieved by comparing the coefficient of exposure with monitoring and without air monitoring and determining the coefficient of compliance. With and without air monitoring in the chemical industry. Methods: This study is a descriptive-analytical and comparative study that was conducted to assess compliance in assessing the risk of chemical exposure with and without air monitoring in the chemical industry. The statistical population in this study included large industries of East Azerbaijan province, which had the characteristics of a research unit. Examples of chemicals used in these industries were: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, benzoalphapyrene, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, Cu, Fe, H2s, Mn, Pb, Sn, Zn. Sampling of industries was done in the form of multi-stage cluster sampling of a number of large industries in the province. The implementation method in this study was based on the semi-quantitative risk assessment method provided by the Singapore Department of Occupational Health. Results: Out of 14 chemicals studied in large industries, 4 chemicals of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene were observed in all industries, but other chemicals were observed only in the refinery. According to the results of the chemical risk rating for the condition in which the air monitoring results were available; Benzoalfaprine (4/47) had the highest risk and Zn (1/91) had the lowest risk coefficient, and in general benzene, benzoalfaprine, sulfuric acid, Fe and Pb had moderate to high risk levels. Also, the risk rating was the lowest for xylene (2/45) and the highest for Pb (4/08) in the absence of air monitoring results. The in-class correlation coefficient and Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive correlation between the measured results with and without air monitoring 0/65 and 0/78 respectively. Conclusion: The results of the study showed a good agreement between the results of chemical risk assessment in case of using air monitoring and the results without air monitoring. The results of the regression model also showed the best model with a correlation of 82%. According to the functional forms resulting from the regression models, the functional form of the linear regression model is Y = a + bx and the functional form of the Reciprocal-Y Squared-X model is Y = 1 / (a + bx2), which is the best The predictable model with respect to the correlation coefficient of 0/82 and R2 is equal to 67/46. key words: Risk assessment, occupational exposure, chemical industry, exposure monitoring