Environmental and Health Risk Assessments of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Based on Source Apportionment—A Case Study in Harbin, a Megacity in Northeastern China

Abstract

The multiple sources and concomitant negative environmental and health impacts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere demonstrate their importance in air pollution control. This study employed environment- and health risk-oriented source apportionment methods to quantitatively estimate VOCs’ contribution to air pollution and health risks, using offline VOC measurements from the Harbin urban region from 2021 to 2022. Total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) averaged 25.6 ± 8.2 ppb, except for alkanes (34.4%), and aromatics (24.2%) were found to be a major contributor, with the highest LOH (38.0%), ozone formation potential (OFP) (43.0%), and secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP) (95.0%) and exerting a directly toxic effect (46.0%). Positive matrix factorization (PMF) source apportionment revealed that vehicle exhausts, combustion sources, solvent and coating usage, solvent and fuel evaporation, and petrochemical industry sources were key VOC sources. A health risk assessment showed that there was an integrated carcinogenic risk of 5.8 × 10−4, with respiratory (1.5 × 10−4) and hematologic systems (1.5 × 10−4) representing higher carcinogenic risks. Both benzene and naphthalene exhibited carcinogenic risks of 1.5 × 10−4, implying an excess of higher cancer risk levels (1.0 × 10−4). Significant joint environmental and health benefits could be obtained by reducing benzene and naphthalene concentrations by about 50.0%, along with the abatement of vehicle exhausts (82.6%), combustion sources (40.7%), and solvent and coating usage (50.7%). This study can serve as useful guidance for the quantitative mitigation of hazardous VOCs and their key sources.