Health cancer risk assessment for arsenic exposure in potentially contaminated areas by fertilizer plants: a possible regulatory approach applied to a case study in Moscow region-Russia.

Abstract

At present, fertilizer industry plants are considered as a potential source of soil contamination in Russia. Therefore health risk assessment should be pursued in Russian fertilizer plant areas, but unfortunately risk assessment methodology for contaminated sites does not have yet a regulatory value in Russia. In this paper a possible and intentionally simple regulatory approach for health cancer risk assessment at phosphogypsum waste-storing potentially contaminated sites is presented. The proposed approach is applied to a potential contaminated area located in the Moscow river (Moscow Region) protective zone. At this case-study area, arsenic has been chosen as a contaminant indicator, according to the proposed selection procedure. For estimating the human exposure to arsenic through various pathways the original McKone & Daniels '91 model has been adapted. As a specific result of the risk assessment for the case-study area, it has been shown that arsenic exposure pathways (in risk-ranking order) "ingestion of agricultural products," "groundwater uptake," "dermal contact," and "soil ingestion" pose a significant health risk. From a general point of view, the proposed and applied health risk assessment approach could give some contribution (for comparison and discussion) for policies on contaminated soils to other countries. In this perspective, the paper expressly considers the current Italian regulative situation concerning restricted use of risk analysis and concerning soil quality for agricultural land use.

• Authors: Tatiana Zakharova, Fabio Tatàno, Valery Menshikov
• Journal: Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP (Regul Toxicol Pharmacol) Vol. 36 Issue 1 Pg. 22-33 (Aug 2002) ISSN: 0273-2300 [Print] Netherlands
• PMID: 12383715 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Fertilizers
• Industrial Waste
• Soil Pollutants
• Water Pollutants, Chemical
• Arsenic

Topics

• Arsenic (analysis)
• Decision Trees
• Environmental Exposure (analysis, legislation & jurisprudence)
• Environmental Monitoring (legislation & jurisprudence)
• Fertilizers (analysis)
• Humans
• Industrial Waste (prevention & control)
• Industry (legislation & jurisprudence, standards)
• Italy
• Maximum Allowable Concentration
• Moscow
• Proportional Hazards Models
• Risk Assessment (methods)
• Social Control, Formal
• Soil Pollutants (analysis, standards)
• United States
• United States Environmental Protection Agency (standards)
• Water Pollutants, Chemical (analysis, standards)