Investigation on exposure parameters of residents around a petrochemical enterprise

Objective To provide data support for regional environmental health risk assessment by investigating the physical characteristic parameters, intake parameters, and time-activity pattern parameters of the population living around a petrochemical enterprise.

Methods From April to May of 2021, the nearest primary school and middle school were selected within 5 km of a petrochemical enterprise in Hubei province, China, and the stratified cluster sampling method was used to select the students from 2 to 3 classes and their families members from each grade (whose home addresses were within 5 km around the enterprise and who had lived in this area for more than half a year) as subjects. Exposure parameters were obtained by the method of questionnaire survey and 24-hour activity log.

Results A total of 763 individuals (353 males and 410 females) were actually surveyed, including 207 juveniles aged 6-17 years, 392 adults aged 18-59 years, and 164 elderly people aged above 60 years. The average height, weight, skin surface area, long-term respiratory capacity, and total water intake of juveniles were (152.8±14.2)cm, (45.0±12.9)kg, (1.4±0.2)m², 13.5(12.0, 15.4)m³/d, and 679 (475, 900) mL/d, respectively. The bathing time in spring, summer, autumn, and winter were 15(10, 30), 20(10, 30), 15(10, 25) and 15(10, 30) min/d, respectively. The swimming time (for swimmers only) was 75(30, 150) min/month. The soil contact time (only contact personnel) was 20(10, 30) min/d. The average height, weight, skin surface area, long-term respiratory capacity and total water intake of adults were (165.8±8.3) cm, (62.5±11.6) kg, (1.7±0.2) m², 15.2(13.8, 18.0) m³/d, and 900 (650, 1 250) mL/d, respectively. The bathing time in spring, summer, autumn, and winter were 15(10, 20), 15(10, 20), 15(10, 20) and 15(8, 20) min/d, respectively. The swimming time (for swimmers only) was 30(15, 63) min/month. The soil contact time (only contact personnel) was 120(50, 225) min/d. The average height, weight, skin surface area, long-term respiratory capacity and total water intake of the elderly were (163.8±8.2) cm, (61.0±9.0) kg, (1.5±0.1) m², 13.0(12.3, 13.9) m³/d, and 725 (500, 1 000) mL/d, respectively. Bathing time in spring, summer, autumn, and winter were 14(10, 20), 15(10, 25), 13(10, 20) and 8(15, 20) min/d, respectively. The swimming time (only swimmers) was 30(14, 75) min/month. The soil contact time (only contact personnel) was 180(60, 360) min/d. The outdoor activity time of adults and elderly people on working days and rest days showed "bimodal distribution", while the outdoor activity time of juveniles showed "bimodal distribution" only on rest days. For the individuals in different age groups, the microenvironment exposure time of outdoor activity was associated with lifestyle and work-rest schedule.

Conclusion This study obtains the exposure parameters of people with different genders and ages around a typical petrochemical site, which provides data support for the health risk assessment of people in specific areas, especially the areas around typical petrochemical sites in the future.