Tracking health threat from gaseous organic mixture in industry

Abstract

Industrial production emits a multitude of pollutants, among which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) almost exists in every industry. Serving as central factor in atmospheric chemistry, VOCs has been strictly controlled worldwide. However, a gap between VOCs regulation and health effect has increased owing to the complexity of characterizing deleterious species and understanding their hazards. We learned the exposure profiles of occupational workers in 24 VOCs-related industries, identified the aggregate risk of individual species, and assessed the cumulative risk for affected organs /tissues. Results showed that toxic species in exposed VOCs mixture significantly increased the burden on respiratory, reproductive, hepatic, urinary, immune, and developmental system. We further developed an accompanying understanding of how ongoing control measures reduced health threats and proposed long and short-term strategy to improve health. The results highlight the importance of considering health and atmospheric chemistry equally in determining VOCs limits, and thus harmonize environment and human simultaneously.