Comparison of health risk assessment and correction methods of heavy metals in PM10

In this study, we characterized the content of heavy metals in PM10, calculated the exposure levels for population and assessed the human health risks in an electronic waste dismantling area of South China. Subsequently, the non-carcinogenic health risks of the population were amended by the target organ toxic dose (TTD) method and weight of evidence (WOE) method, respectively. The results showed that the non-carcinogenic health risks in the summer and winter were: children > adult women > adult men, and the heavy metal Ni was probably carcinogenic risks to the population (ranged from 10-6 to 10-4). The non-carcinogenic health risk values of Cr, Pb, Cd and As for adult males were 3.05×10-2 and the corrected risk values by the TTD and WOE methods were 5.41×10-2 and 5.4×10-1. Our results indicated that the assessment of non-carcinogenic health risk values of heavy metals from PM10 should comprehensively consider the interactions between heavy metals. © 2022 Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. All rights reserved.