Health risk assessment of petroleum hydrocarbons in environmental media
- EMCON, Sacramento, CA (United States). Toxicology and Risk Assessment Group
Over the past decade, health risk assessment (HRA) has become the preferred decision-making tool for judging whether a site (ex., hazardous waste site) or an activity (ex., facility operation) may be safe or unsafe. Currently, no consensus HRA methodology has evolved for evaluating complex mixtures such as petroleum hydrocarbons, either for assessing baseline health risk or for setting environmental corrective action goals. The most common HRA approach is to evaluate individual compounds, not complex mixtures. Because no consensus approach has been forthcoming, regulatory agencies have adopted widely varying requirements related to environmental remediation programs for petroleum hydrocarbons, particularly total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). Corrective action goals for TPH are known to range in degree of conservatism from a concentration equivalent to the practical limit of quantification (PLQ) to ignoring the TPH component altogether. The primary objectives of this paper are two-fold; (1) to review the various methods employed for setting TPH corrective action goals, and (2) to evaluate HRA methodologies applicable to residual TPH in environmental media. This paper will also discuss and evaluate an HRA methodology, herein referred to as a fractionation approach, which the authors believe to be the most scientific and logical approach for assessing risk for petroleum hydrocarbons in environmental media. Rationale for this HRA methodology as opposed to other approaches are discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 113249
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940499-; ISBN 1-56590-014-6; TRN: 95:022510
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Federal environmental restoration and waste minimization conference and exhibition, New Orleans, LA (United States), 25-29 Apr 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of 1994 Federal environmental restoration III and waste minimization II conference and exhibition: Proceedings. Volume 1; PB: 783 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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