factories which included chemical industry, petroleum industry, plastic industry and electronics industry, etc. in the industrial area,and the rural sampling site was still near a hospital incinerator and the main road in Taichung City. Although the largest PE/PP plastic waste recycling plant in this study was also located in central Taiwan, it was situated in another industrial area where was close to the seacoast and had stronger sea wind. Few residents and vehicles, and 50 small factories were in this area. According to our recent study for the PAHs measurement in rural area of central Taiwan, the ambient background concentrations of particle-bound PAHs were 0.64 ± 0.34 ng m 3 (Mao et al., 2007). The PAHs measured at the boundaries of the PE/PP plastic waste recycling plant were likely near the background level. Additionally, the PAHs inside the plant compared with the referred background levels could reach 14–394 folds. The health effect for the workers should be considered due to the long term exposure.
4. Conclusions
The melting and powdering processes for treating plastic waste at low temperature could generate harmful and malodorous gas emissions which have potential adverse health impacts not only for employees but also for nearby residents. The odor concentrations