Ambient VOCs in residential areas near a large-scale petrochemical complex: Spatiotemporal variation, source apportionment and health risk * Chin-Yu Hsu a , Hung-Che Chiang a, d , Ruei-Hao Shie b , Chun-Hung Ku a , Tzu-Yu Lin a , Mu-Jean Chen a , Nai-Tzu Chen a , Yu-Cheng Chen a, c, * a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, 35 Keyan Road, Zhunan Town, Miaoli, 35053, Taiwan b Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan c Department of Occupational Safety and Health, China Medical University, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan d School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 11 June 2017 Received in revised form 13 February 2018 Accepted 17 April 2018 Keywords: VOCs Cancer risk Source apportionment Spatiotemporal variation Petrochemical complex abstract This study investigated ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and assessed excess health risks for child, adult and elderly populations in a residential area near a large-scale petrochemical complex in central Taiwan. A total of 155 daily VOC samples were collected in canisters from nine sites in spring, summer and winter during 2013e2014. We used a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model incorpo- rating a conditional probability function (CPF) to quantify the potential sources of VOCs with the in- fluences of local source directions. We then evaluated the non-cancer and cancer risks of specific VOCs with probabilistic distributions by performing a Monte-Carlo simulation for the child, adult, and elderly populations. Most of the VOCs were higher in summer than in winter or spring for the sampling sites. The presence of vinyl acetate, chloroethene, and 1,2-dichloroethane were significantly high within a 5- km radius of the petrochemical complex. Four potential sources of ambient VOCs, industrial emission (49.2%e63.6%), traffic-related emission (13.9%e19.1%), fuel evaporation (12.3%e16.9%), and aged emis- sion (10.2%e14.8%), were identified. The cancer risk of ambient VOC exposure was mainly attributed to the industrial source in the study area, while the non-cancer risk was of less concern. Benzene associated with fuel evaporation resulted in the highest cancer risk (4.1  10 5 5.5  10 5 ) as compared to that of the other toxic VOCs. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Air pollutants from large-scale chemical/petroleum facilities have been widely recognized as a main risk factor for public health in many countries (Liu et al., 2008a; Nadal et al., 2009, 2011; Parra et al., 2009; Yu et al., 2006). Among air pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are among the significant contaminants but are difficult to quantify accurately. VOCs can be fugitive as they may be derived from various substances and sources (such as a chemical facility, traffic, a gas station, the combustion process, and even households) and vary by season, location, climate effect, etc. Once VOCs reach a certain level, they not only affect the chemistry of the atmosphere (i.e. tropospheric ozone and secondary organic aero- sols) (Khalade et al., 2010) but also impact the health of the general population (Aungudornpukdee et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2002; Ware et al., 1993; Yu et al., 2006). Several studies have reported that local residents living near emission/fugitive sources of chemical/ petroleum facilities are exposed to relatively high levels of VOCs (Civan et al., 2015; Mo et al., 2015; Yu et al., 2006). As a result, a positive correlation between cancer risks (leukemia and brain tu- mor) and VOC exposures/surrogates for residents proximal to petrochemical facilities has also been demonstrated (Liu et al., 2008a; Yu et al., 2006). The No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Complex (Mailiao Complex), which comprises 64 various plants (e.g., oil refineries, naphtha cracking plants, petrochemical processing plants, and a coal-fired * This paper has been recommended for acceptance by David Carpenter. * Corresponding author. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, 35 Keyan Road, Zhunan Town, Miaoli, 35053, Taiwan. E-mail address: yucheng@nhri.org.tw (Y.-C. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Pollution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.04.076 0269-7491/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Environmental Pollution 240 (2018) 95e104