Recently, Professor Zheng Minghui's research group from School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS has made new progress in the indoor exposure to dioxin persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from biomass combustion in rural Tibetan Plateau. The results, entitled "Indoor exposure to products of incomplete combustion of household fuels in rural Tibetan Plateau" and "Model evaluation of indoor exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from household fuel combustion in rural Tibetan Plateau", are published in environmental science journals,Environ. Sci. Technol.andExposure & Healthrespectively.
Air pollution is associated with a variety of respiratory diseases. There are many semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in indoor air, and people spend longer time indoors than outdoors, so respiratory exposure caused by indoor SVOCs may be more significant. The Tibetan Plateau is the highest plateau in the world, known as the third pole of the world. In addition to long-distance migration, biomass combustion is also one of the important sources of SVOCs in Tibetan Plateau. The use of biomass energy in rural Tibetan Plateau is different from that in other plain areas. More than 80% of the energy comes from the combustion of biomass fuels such as livestock dung, crop residues and coal. Moreover, the air pressure and oxygen content of the Tibetan Plateau are significantly different from those in other plain areas. Therefore, the combustion conditions of biomass are different and SVOCs are more likely to be generated in incomplete combustion. The high altitude of Tibetan Plateau makes it more difficult to use large sampling and monitoring equipment to monitor indoor dioxin SVOCs than other areas. At present, there is a lack of monitoring data on indoor air dioxins in rural areas in this area, and the exposure level of indoor dioxins also remains unknown.
This study established an emission model, an indoor concentration prediction model and a respiratory health risk prediction model for dioxin SVOCs from indoor household energy combustion in rural Tibetan Plateau. Through the models, the emissions and respiratory exposure of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) caused by the combustion of household fuels in rural Tibetan Plateau were evaluated. The lifestyle of local residents is an important factor affecting their respiratory intake of SVOCs, and relevant studies are of reference significance for exposure risk assessment and prevention and control in this area.
Figure 1. Types and amounts of household fuels used in rural Tibetan Plateau
The first author of the paper is Jin Rong, associate research fellow of the School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS, and the corresponding author is Professor Liu Guorui. This work was supported by the second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP), National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Link to the paper:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c05298
Click here to read the full article:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12403-022-00482-4
Source | School of Environment
Typesetter: Yu Xuan
Executive Editor | Wang Xia
