Health Risk Assessment and Remediation Guide Limit of Antimony Contaminated Soil in a Retired Chemical Plant

Based on comprehensive investigation of the site environment, this paper gives a health risk assessment of the antimony contaminated soil in a retired chemical plant by integrating the health risk assessment methods of USEPA, CCME and VROM, in combination with amendatory parameters which were revised using the Chinese demographic characteristics and site characteristic. The monitoring results indicated that 54% of the tested soil samples have exceeded the antimony risk screening value 31 mg/kg. The antimony pollutant mainly concentrated on the soil of 2m and the maximum concentration reached 1262.7mg/kg. Through three exposure pathways: oral ingestion, dermal contact and breath inhalation, human health risks are calculated about the average concentration 93.1mg/kg, 95% upper confidence limit 361.3mg/kg and the extreme concentration 1262.7 mg/kg. The calculation shows that the non-carcinogenic risk of antimony contaminated soil through the above three exposure pathways are 4.19, 16.26 and 56.7 respectively. According to the acceptable non-cancer hazard quotient which is 1, the repaired target of antimony contaminated soil is reckoned as 22.34mg/kg, which is further corrected to 12 mg/kg after giving consideration to relevant soil environment standards and Chinese soil environmental background.