Atmospheric Environment
Volume 81, December 2013, Pages 112–116
Cover image
Short communication
Air toxics concentrations, source identification, and health risks: An air pollution hot spot in southwest Memphis, TN
Chunrong Jia, , Jeffery Foran1
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Highlights
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An air pollution hot spot was identified in southwest Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.
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Southwest Memphis is a low-income, minority concentrated region.
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The region has a significantly higher burden of air toxics exposure.
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Cumulative cancer risk was 4 times higher than the national average.
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This is the first field study to confirm acrylonitrile as a risk driver.
Abstract
Southwest Memphis is a residential region surrounded by fossil fuel burning, steel, refining, and food processing industries, and considerable mobile sources whose emissions may pose adverse health risks to local residents. This study characterizes cancer and non-cancer risks resulting from exposure to ambient air toxics in southwest Memphis. Air toxics samples were collected at a central location every 6 days from June 5, 2008 to January 8, 2010. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were collected in evacuated stainless-steel canisters and aldehydes by DNPH cartridges, and samples were analyzed for 73 target compounds. A total of 60 compounds were detected and 39 were found in over 86% of the samples. Mean concentrations of many compounds were higher than those measured in many industrial communities throughout the U.S. The cumulative cancer risk associated with exposure to 13 carcinogens found in southwest Memphis air was 2.3 × 10−4, four times higher than the national average of 5.0 × 10−5. Three risk drivers were identified: benzene, formaldehyde, and acrylonitrile, which contributed 43%, 19%, and 14% to the cumulative risk, respectively. This is the first field study to confirm acrylonitrile as a potential risk driver. Mobile, secondary, industrial, and background sources contributed 57%, 24%, 14%, and 5% of the risk, respectively. The results of this study indicate that southwest Memphis, a region of significant income, racial, and social disparities, is also a region under significant environmental stress compared with surrounding areas and communities.
Keywords
Air toxics; Hot spot; Volatile organic compound; Aldehyde; Acrylonitrile; Disparity
1. Introduction
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA is a large, mid-south metropolitan area with a rich social and cultural history. It is also a city and region challenged by air pollution problems, in particular, air toxics pollution and associated health risks. Shelby County is ranked in the top 100 U.S. counties for emissions of air toxics (USEPA, 2012a), and Memphis was ranked the No. 1 asthma challenged city among the 100 largest U.S. cities (AAFA, 2012). Of particular note is southwest Memphis, a local region located south of the Memphis' central city, bordered on the west by the heavily industrialized President's Island and the Mississippi River, on the east by Interstate 69, and transected by Interstate 55. The community is racially homogeneous with 99% of its population composed of African Americans, and a median household income of $17,202 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Twenty-two of the top 30 major emission sources in Shelby County reside in or near southwest Memphis. There are other significant local transportation sources of air pollution, including barge traffic on the Mississippi River, truck and autos on interstate highways, several local rail yards, and air traffic at Memphis International Airport, the busiest airport in the U.S. and second busiest in the world by cargo traffic (Air Council International, 2010). Thus, this community is potentially a “hot spot”, where local emission sources may cause elevated air pollution levels; however, until recently, monitoring data have not been available to profile air toxics or to characterize potential health risks associated with their exposure. This study identifies major air toxics and potential sources, and estimates cancer and non-cancer risks resulting from short- and long-term inhalation exposure to ambient air toxics in southwest Memphis.
2. Methods
2.1. Field sampling and laboratory analysis
The monitoring site was located at a central location, which provided an appropriate representation of exposure to ambient air toxics (Jia et al., 2012). Air toxics samples were collected every six days from 06/05/2008 to 01/08/2010. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were sampled using pre-evacuated 6-L stainless-steel canisters, and aldehydes were collected onto dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) coated cartridges at a flow rate of 900 ml min−1. Each sampling event started at 12 am and ended at 12 am the next day, controlled by an automated sampling system. A total of 103 VOC and 104 aldehyde samples were collected. Samples were analyzed by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified laboratory. Canister samples were analyzed for 61 target VOCs on a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system, following EPA's TO-15 method (USEPA, 1999b). Aldehyde samples were analyzed by a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with an ultraviolet detector using EPA's TO-11A method (USEPA, 1999a). Method detection limits (MDLs) ranged from 0.005 to 0.223 μg m−3 for VOCs, and from 0.004 to 0.012 μg m−3 for aldehydes. Details of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) for sampling activities and laboratory analysis were documented in the Quality Assurance Project Plan, which was reviewed and approved by EPA.
2.2. Data cleaning
Ten VOC samples and six aldehyde samples were excluded from the data analysis as they failed QA/QC requirements. The canister sampling was found to have high uncertainty for acrolein, a very reactive carbonyl (USEPA, 2010), and thus acrolein was excluded from data analysis. Acetonitrile had two extremely high concentrations (336 and 108 μg m−3), possibly caused by measurement error or unknown accidental release of this chemical, and they were considered outliers and removed. Detection frequency (DF) was determined as the percentage of measurements above the MDL, and measurements below MDLs were replaced with half MDLs.
2.3. Source identification
Common sources of air toxics were identified by factor analysis using log-transformed concentrations of 25 frequently detected (DFs > 30%) air toxics and Varimax rotation in SAS (Ver 9.3, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). A factor was selected to represent a common source if its eigenvalue was greater than 1 and had at least 2 chemicals with factor loadings >0.65. This method has been successfully applied in a previous VOC study (Jia et al., 2008a).
2.4. Risk assessment
EPA recommends using the 95% upper confidence interval (UCL) of the population mean concentration for estimation of chronic exposure (Singh, 2006). Therefore, UCLs were computed for chemicals with DFs ≥ 30% in ProUCL (Ver 4.1.00), a program that provides an appropriate UCL by comparing 5 parametric and 10 non-parametric methods. Risk of chronic non-carcinogenic health effects was evaluated by comparing the UCLs with the chemical-specific Reference Concentrations (RfCs) (USEPA, 2012b), or with Minimum Risk Levels (MRLs) (ATSDR, 2013) and Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (California OEHHA, 2013) if RfCs were unavailable. We also used MRLs for acute exposure (1–14 days) to examine if high concentrations on certain days could cause adverse health effects. Cancer risks were calculated by multiplying the UCL of the mean air concentration by the inhalation unit risk for 13 air toxics for which unit risks were available in the Integrated Risk Information System (USEPA, 2012b). We calculated cumulative cancer risk as the sum of individual cancer risk estimates assuming that all cancer risks were additive. Finally, we apportioned the cumulative cancer risk to sources identified in the factor analysis, as well as the background concentrations taken from 2005 NATA (USEPA, 2011).
3. Results
3.1. Concentrations and sources of air toxics
The monitoring program detected 60 air toxics in southwest Memphis (Table S1). Twenty six compounds occurred in 100% of samples, including all aromatics (except for styrene); the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); most aldehydes; four chlorohydrocarbons; and acetone, acetylene, carbon disulfide, and propylene. Numerous other compounds were detected in more than 90% of samples. Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene (BTEX), formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, two CFCs, acetone, carbon disulfide, and acetonitrile occurred at mean concentrations above 2 μg m−3.
Three common factors explained 51% of the total variance (Table 1). The first factor contained aromatics, alkanes and 1,3-butadiene, which are known components of gasoline vapors and vehicle exhausts. This factor also included p-dichlorobenzene and tetrachloroethylene, likely from mobile sources and dry cleaning facilities, respectively ( Logue et al., 2009). Thus, this factor mainly reflected gasoline-related sources, including stationary (refineries) and mobile (vehicles) sources. The second factor was composed of aldehydes, which are oxidation products of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere ( Manahan, 2000); thus, it reflected secondary sources. The third factor was composed of CFCs, important ozone depleting chemicals. No specific sources of CFCs were reported in the region, so this factor reflected fugitive emissions of refrigerants. Other chemicals showed weak correlations, indicating they were from independent sources or represented background concentrations.
สภาพแวดล้อมบรรยากาศเสียง 81, 2013 ธันวาคม หน้า 112-116 ภาพปกการสื่อสารระยะสั้นอากาศความเข้มข้นของ toxics รหัสแหล่งที่มา และความเสี่ยงสุขภาพ: เป็นจุดร้อนมลภาวะอากาศในตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ Memphis, TNChunrong เจีย เจฟ Foran1 ดูเพิ่มเติมไฮไลท์•ระบุเป็นจุดร้อนมลภาวะอากาศในตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ Memphis เทนเนสซี สหรัฐอเมริกา•Memphis ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้จะเป็นแนซ์ ชนกลุ่มน้อยภาคที่เข้มข้น•ภูมิภาคมีภาระสูงขึ้นอย่างมีนัยสำคัญของการสัมผัสอากาศ toxics•เสี่ยงมะเร็งสะสมได้ 4 ครั้งสูงกว่าค่าเฉลี่ยของประเทศ•นี่คือการศึกษาฟิลด์แรกเพื่อยืนยัน acrylonitrile เป็นโปรแกรมควบคุมความเสี่ยงบทคัดย่อMemphis ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้เป็นภูมิภาคอยู่อาศัยด้วยการเผาไหม้เชื้อเพลิงฟอสซิล เหล็ก กลั่น และอาหารแปรรูปอุตสาหกรรม และแหล่งมือถือจำนวนมากที่ปล่อยก๊าซที่อาจทำให้เกิดความเสี่ยงต่อสุขภาพร้ายอาศัยอยู่ในท้องถิ่น การศึกษานี้ระบุลักษณะความเสี่ยงโรคมะเร็งและไม่ใช่โรคมะเร็งเกิดจากการสัมผัสกับสภาวะอากาศ toxics ใน Memphis ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ ตัวอย่างอากาศ toxics ถูกเก็บรวบรวมที่ส่วนกลางทุก 6 วันจากเดือน 5 มิถุนายน 2008 8 มกราคม 2010 สารอินทรีย์ระเหย (VOCs) ถูกเก็บรวบรวมในกล่องเหล็กสเตนเลสสุญญากาศและ aldehydes โดยตลับ DNPH และมีวิเคราะห์ตัวอย่างสำหรับสารเป้าหมายที่ 73 พบทั้งหมด 60 สารประกอบ และ 39 พบกว่า 86% ของตัวอย่าง หมายถึงความเข้มข้นของสารต่าง ๆ ได้สูงกว่าที่วัดในชุมชนอุตสาหกรรมหลายแห่งทั่วสหรัฐอเมริกา เสี่ยงมะเร็งสะสมที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการสัมผัสกับสารก่อมะเร็ง 13 ที่พบในตะวันตกเฉียงใต้อากาศ Memphis เป็น 2.3 × 10−4 สี่เท่าสูงกว่าค่าเฉลี่ยประเทศของ 5.0 × 10−5 ระบุโปรแกรมควบคุมความเสี่ยงสาม: เบนซีน ฟอร์มาลดีไฮด์ และ acrylonitrile ซึ่งส่วน 43%, 19% และ 14% ความเสี่ยงสะสม ตามลำดับ นี่คือการศึกษาฟิลด์แรกเพื่อยืนยัน acrylonitrile เป็นโปรแกรมควบคุมความเสี่ยงที่อาจเกิดขึ้น มือถือ รอง อุตสาหกรรม และแหล่งพื้นหลังส่วน 57%, 24%, 14% และ 5% ของความเสี่ยง ตามลำดับ ผลการศึกษานี้บ่งชี้ว่า Memphis ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ ภูมิภาคของรายได้ที่สำคัญ เชื้อชาติ และความแตก ต่างทางสังคม ยัง ภูมิภาคภายใต้ความเครียดอย่างมีนัยสำคัญที่เปรียบเทียบกับพื้นที่และชุมชนที่อยู่โดยรอบสิ่งแวดล้อมกันKeywordsAir toxics; Hot spot; Volatile organic compound; Aldehyde; Acrylonitrile; Disparity1. IntroductionMemphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA is a large, mid-south metropolitan area with a rich social and cultural history. It is also a city and region challenged by air pollution problems, in particular, air toxics pollution and associated health risks. Shelby County is ranked in the top 100 U.S. counties for emissions of air toxics (USEPA, 2012a), and Memphis was ranked the No. 1 asthma challenged city among the 100 largest U.S. cities (AAFA, 2012). Of particular note is southwest Memphis, a local region located south of the Memphis' central city, bordered on the west by the heavily industrialized President's Island and the Mississippi River, on the east by Interstate 69, and transected by Interstate 55. The community is racially homogeneous with 99% of its population composed of African Americans, and a median household income of $17,202 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Twenty-two of the top 30 major emission sources in Shelby County reside in or near southwest Memphis. There are other significant local transportation sources of air pollution, including barge traffic on the Mississippi River, truck and autos on interstate highways, several local rail yards, and air traffic at Memphis International Airport, the busiest airport in the U.S. and second busiest in the world by cargo traffic (Air Council International, 2010). Thus, this community is potentially a “hot spot”, where local emission sources may cause elevated air pollution levels; however, until recently, monitoring data have not been available to profile air toxics or to characterize potential health risks associated with their exposure. This study identifies major air toxics and potential sources, and estimates cancer and non-cancer risks resulting from short- and long-term inhalation exposure to ambient air toxics in southwest Memphis.2. Methods2.1. Field sampling and laboratory analysisThe monitoring site was located at a central location, which provided an appropriate representation of exposure to ambient air toxics (Jia et al., 2012). Air toxics samples were collected every six days from 06/05/2008 to 01/08/2010. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were sampled using pre-evacuated 6-L stainless-steel canisters, and aldehydes were collected onto dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) coated cartridges at a flow rate of 900 ml min−1. Each sampling event started at 12 am and ended at 12 am the next day, controlled by an automated sampling system. A total of 103 VOC and 104 aldehyde samples were collected. Samples were analyzed by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified laboratory. Canister samples were analyzed for 61 target VOCs on a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system, following EPA's TO-15 method (USEPA, 1999b). Aldehyde samples were analyzed by a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with an ultraviolet detector using EPA's TO-11A method (USEPA, 1999a). Method detection limits (MDLs) ranged from 0.005 to 0.223 μg m−3 for VOCs, and from 0.004 to 0.012 μg m−3 for aldehydes. Details of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) for sampling activities and laboratory analysis were documented in the Quality Assurance Project Plan, which was reviewed and approved by EPA.2.2. Data cleaning
Ten VOC samples and six aldehyde samples were excluded from the data analysis as they failed QA/QC requirements. The canister sampling was found to have high uncertainty for acrolein, a very reactive carbonyl (USEPA, 2010), and thus acrolein was excluded from data analysis. Acetonitrile had two extremely high concentrations (336 and 108 μg m−3), possibly caused by measurement error or unknown accidental release of this chemical, and they were considered outliers and removed. Detection frequency (DF) was determined as the percentage of measurements above the MDL, and measurements below MDLs were replaced with half MDLs.
2.3. Source identification
Common sources of air toxics were identified by factor analysis using log-transformed concentrations of 25 frequently detected (DFs > 30%) air toxics and Varimax rotation in SAS (Ver 9.3, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). A factor was selected to represent a common source if its eigenvalue was greater than 1 and had at least 2 chemicals with factor loadings >0.65. This method has been successfully applied in a previous VOC study (Jia et al., 2008a).
2.4. Risk assessment
EPA recommends using the 95% upper confidence interval (UCL) of the population mean concentration for estimation of chronic exposure (Singh, 2006). Therefore, UCLs were computed for chemicals with DFs ≥ 30% in ProUCL (Ver 4.1.00), a program that provides an appropriate UCL by comparing 5 parametric and 10 non-parametric methods. Risk of chronic non-carcinogenic health effects was evaluated by comparing the UCLs with the chemical-specific Reference Concentrations (RfCs) (USEPA, 2012b), or with Minimum Risk Levels (MRLs) (ATSDR, 2013) and Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (California OEHHA, 2013) if RfCs were unavailable. We also used MRLs for acute exposure (1–14 days) to examine if high concentrations on certain days could cause adverse health effects. Cancer risks were calculated by multiplying the UCL of the mean air concentration by the inhalation unit risk for 13 air toxics for which unit risks were available in the Integrated Risk Information System (USEPA, 2012b). We calculated cumulative cancer risk as the sum of individual cancer risk estimates assuming that all cancer risks were additive. Finally, we apportioned the cumulative cancer risk to sources identified in the factor analysis, as well as the background concentrations taken from 2005 NATA (USEPA, 2011).
3. Results
3.1. Concentrations and sources of air toxics
The monitoring program detected 60 air toxics in southwest Memphis (Table S1). Twenty six compounds occurred in 100% of samples, including all aromatics (except for styrene); the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); most aldehydes; four chlorohydrocarbons; and acetone, acetylene, carbon disulfide, and propylene. Numerous other compounds were detected in more than 90% of samples. Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene (BTEX), formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, two CFCs, acetone, carbon disulfide, and acetonitrile occurred at mean concentrations above 2 μg m−3.
Three common factors explained 51% of the total variance (Table 1). The first factor contained aromatics, alkanes and 1,3-butadiene, which are known components of gasoline vapors and vehicle exhausts. This factor also included p-dichlorobenzene and tetrachloroethylene, likely from mobile sources and dry cleaning facilities, respectively ( Logue et al., 2009). Thus, this factor mainly reflected gasoline-related sources, including stationary (refineries) and mobile (vehicles) sources. The second factor was composed of aldehydes, which are oxidation products of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere ( Manahan, 2000); thus, it reflected secondary sources. The third factor was composed of CFCs, important ozone depleting chemicals. No specific sources of CFCs were reported in the region, so this factor reflected fugitive emissions of refrigerants. Other chemicals showed weak correlations, indicating they were from independent sources or represented background concentrations.
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