Investigation of levels of gaseous pollutants and noise with their probable health effect on employees of alcoholic and beverages bottling industries of Chandigarh city, India

Abstract

A wide array of emission sources commonly generates air pollutants in industrial settings and consists of a complex mixture of inorganic and organic constituents, which encompass volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In most cases, employees and workers spend at least eight hours a day in any industry and are exposed to pollutants, including noise present/generated inside the industry, which affects their work efficiency and health. The objective of this research is to investigate the potential health risks of employees associated with the presence of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), Ozone (O3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ethanol, and noise in bottling industries located in Chandigarh city in India. Although the average concentration of pollutants was found to be within the permissible range, the noise level (77±3dB) was found to be slightly above the standard. The health risk analysis employed both deterministic and probabilistic models revealed that with over 50% frequency, the ethanol concentration exceeded the threshold limit set by OSHA, and the coefficient of correlation +0.92 between TVOC and ethanol implies a major component of VOCs to be ethanol. The overall health risk is observed to be 1.21, and for individual pollutants, it is in the range of 0.16 to 0.92, which is not significant, but it needs to be observed for strict compliance. It is evident that if the present trend of pollutant levels continues within the study area, it might cause a health threat in the near future. The concentration of pollutants, inhalation rate, and body weight are the prime factors affecting health (28-29%) followed by exposure time (10%) and exposure frequency (5%). The difference in probable health risk in both approaches was 0.63-1.5%, which signifies both models can be used individually for effective estimation of health risk.