Health Risk Assessment in Towns Based on Background Long-Term Concentrations of Ambient Air Pollutants

Introduction: For small and medium-sized towns, background concentrations of ambient air pollutants are traditionally used to estimate dispersion of the latter in accordance with Temporary Recommendations envisaging both background indicators and background long-term average concentrations.
Objective: To assess the appropriateness of applying background long-term average concentrations of air pollutants to estimating average annual concentrations and assessing health risks in towns where regular ambient air monitoring data are not available.
Materials and methods: In 2022, we have ranked air pollutants based on information from two volumes of current permissible emission standards valid in 2019–2025. Of 38 chemicals emitted by an industrial enterprise and 51 by another, we selected 21 and 20 priority pollutants, respectively. Health risks in the population were assessed based on lifetime (70 years) chronic exposure estimates.
We established dispersion of air pollutants using the unified program for estimating atmospheric pollution “Ecologist”, Integral LLC, St. Petersburg. Concentrations of two airborne chemicals, which background values should be considered, were determined. Both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks were assessed both including and excluding background air pollution levels. We evaluated total carcinogenic risks and summed up hazard coefficients by effect on target organs and systems.
Results: The findings of health risk assessment, which neglected background long-term average concentrations of airborne industrial pollutants, demonstrated acceptable levels of chronic carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks in both towns while the inclusion of those data resulted in unacceptable risks in Town 1.
Discussion: Health risk assessment for the urban population based on background long-term average concentrations of airborne industrial pollutants produces unacceptable risk levels. It is advisable to study this problem in the process of updating the risk assessment guidelines in order to eliminate contradictions.

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