Journal of Hazardous Materials 176 (2010) 870–877 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hazardous Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhazmat Health risk assessment of BTEX emissions in the landﬁll environment Ertan Durmusoglu a,∗ , Fatih Taspinar b , Aykan Karademir a a Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Kocaeli, 41380 Izmit, Kocaeli, Turkey b A.R. Veziroglu School of Vocation, University of Kocaeli, Kartepe, Kocaeli, Turkey article info Article history: Received 28 May 2009 Received in revised form 21 November 2009 Accepted 24 November 2009 Available online 27 November 2009 Keywords: Municipal solid wastes Landﬁll gas VOCs BTEX Health risk assessment abstract This study focuses on a health risk assessment related to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m,p,o- xylene (xylenes) (BTEX) exposure via inhalation for workers at a landﬁll (LF) site. First, the landﬁll gas (LFG) samples were collected and analyzed accordance with US EPA method TO-17. The mean concen- trations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes were determined as 140.3, 1271.7, 239.9, and 341.3 g/m 3 , respectively. Then, a risk assessment methodology was employed to evaluate the potential adverse health effects of the individual BTEX compounds according to their carcinogenicities. The corre- sponding mean cancer risk for benzene was estimated to be 6.75E-05 that is lower than the designated acceptable risk level of 1.0E-04. With respect to mean non-carcinogenic risks for toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes, both individually and cumulatively, they were lower than the speciﬁed level of 1.0. These ﬁndings reveal that landﬁll BTEX emissions do not pose a health threat to workers at the landﬁll site. In addition, as far as the risks are concerned for the population in the neighborhood area of the landﬁll, air dilution of BTEX emitted from LF site is widely sufﬁcient to guarantee their protection. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Landﬁlling is the major method of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal in the world because it is the most economical waste man- agement strategy currently available. As most landﬁlls are managed by a simple landﬁll method, it creates secondary pollutions such as water pollution by leachate, leakage of gases, and bad odors [1]. Following waste placement, landﬁll gas (LFG) is produced due to numerous processes interacting simultaneously in landﬁlls [2]. Decomposition of organics is the largest source of gas in landﬁlls, as their products become the primary constituents of LFG. LFG is a mixture of several gases, namely methane, carbon dioxide, car- bon monoxide, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, and trace amount of other organic compounds (collectively referred to as non-methane organic compound (NMOC)) in varying propor- tions. Methane and carbon dioxide are the dominant gases in LFG, varying in concentrations between 40% and 60% [3]. The total vol- ume of NMOCs is about 1% of the total LFG volume [3]. EPA has determined that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprise 39% of the NMOCs at MSW landﬁlls in US [4]. VOCs are one of the major air pollutants due to their malodorous and hazardous properties. In addition, VOCs can contribute to global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, and tropospheric ozone formation. There have been extensive studies on the VOC types and concentrations in ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 262 303 3245; fax: +90 262 303 3245. E-mail address: ertan@kocaeli.edu.tr (E. Durmusoglu). urban air [5–16], but few studies on the VOC concentrations in MSW landﬁlls [17–24]. Allen et al. [17] examined the VOCs in LFG at seven landﬁlls in United Kingdom. The gas samples were obtained from monitoring points on the existing gas extraction systems at land- ﬁlls. LFG samples was drawn through the sampling tubes with three adsorbents (Tenax TA, Chromosorb 102 and Carbosive S-III). The tube desorption and VOCs analysis were carried out using a ther- mal desorption system interfaced to a GC/MS. Over 140 VOCs were identiﬁed of which more than 90 were common to all seven land- ﬁll sites. Eklund et al. [18] collected LFG samples in passive vents, landﬁll gas collection headers and ambient air at a landﬁll in New York City. Samples were collected in stainless steel canisters, and VOCs were then analyzed using a GC with multiple detectors. Over 70 compounds were detected and quantiﬁed. Chweigkoﬂer and Hardniessner [19] collected gas samples from two waste disposal sites in Germany. The samples were collected directly into stain- less steel canisters. Analysis was performed using a GC–MS/AES equipped with a thermal desorption unit. More than 80 individual VOCs were identiﬁed. Zou et al. [20] conducted an ambient air mon- itoring study at a landﬁll in China. Gas samples were collected in twelve points using sampling tubes with three adsorbents (Tenax, Carbosive S-III, and silica gel). The analysis were performed using a purge-and-trap concentrator interfaced to a GC/MS. A total of 60 and 38 VOCs were identiﬁed in summer and winter, respectively. de la Rosa et al. [21] collected ambient air and LFG samples using Tedlar bags at ﬁve landﬁlls in Mexico City. VOCs were analyzed using a purge-and-trap system interfaced to a GC/FID. Various LFG compositions among ﬁve landﬁlls were obtained. These authors 0304-3894/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2009.11.117