Research on Health Risk Assessment Methodologies of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Abstract

Health risk assessment (HRA) methodologies of three stages of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill (MSWL), including operation period, maintenance and management period after closure, and usage period without any restricted limits were built in this paper. The major exposure pathways to environmental contaminants were considered: inhalation of gas and dust during operation period, and ingestion of four food pathways categories (plant foods, meat, milk, and fish), groundwater and dust during usage period without any limits. The endpoints of HRA of MSWL are individual lifetime carcinogenic risk for all the carcinogenic chemical contaminants, and hazard index (HI) for all the non-carcinogenic chemical contaminants to the landfill worker (only at the operation period), and to the public near to the landfill (at all the three stages) respectively. The parameter values of calculation model are conservatively chosen. This is the first time in China that an integrated risk assessment methodology for landfill gas and leachate is attempted to develop. HRA methodologies will facilitate rapid estimation of the risk level of MSWL.