Odor nuisance and health risk assessment of VOC emissions from a rendering plant
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Odor nuisance and health risk assessment of VOC emissions from a rendering plant Eleni Sazakli 1
&
Michalis Leotsinidis 1
Received: 29 July 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are generated from animal rendering facilities, some of which are malodorous, while others are considered hazardous. Odor annoyance potential, possible carcinogenic risks, and toxic effects due to VOC emissions from a rendering plant unit in Southwest Greece were evaluated for the general population residing in the near vicinity. Nine air samples were collected from the facilities of an integrated rendering plant and the surrounding area, over a 9-month period. Volatile compounds were absorbed onto solid sorbents containing Tenax TA/Sulficarb via active sampling and analyzed by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Sixty-three organic compounds, mainly volatile fatty acids, aldehydes, aromatic, and sulfur compounds, were quantified, in concentrations ranging from < 0.01 to 210 μg m−3. The compounds contributing most to odor nuisance were butanoic acid, dimethyl trisulfide, and octanal, exceeding their odor threshold by up to 24, 36, and 117 times, respectively. Cancer and non-cancer risks were determined by a probabilistic risk assessment method. The cumulative lifetime cancer risk for the general population was calculated to be on average 10 times higher than the acceptable risk (one-in-a-million). The cumulative mean hazard quotient was 3.3 and its 95th percentile was 4.0, indicating a high risk of adverse health effects. Control measures to prevent the generation of the VOCs responsible for both odor nuisance and potential adverse health effects should be adopted. Keywords Odorous compounds . Health risk assessment . Rendering . Emissions . VOCs . Health hazards
Introduction Animal rendering is the process of converting slaughterhouses’ by-products into safe, nutritional, and economically valuable products. Rendering offers both the retrieval of nutritional commodities and the hygienic disposal of animal carcasses and thus promotes circular economy and minimizes potential hazards to animal and human health. However, the production and emission of malodorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), occurring in rendering plants, due to soft
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-020-00935-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Michalis Leotsinidis [email protected] Eleni Sazakli [email protected] 1
Lab of Public Health, Medical School, University of Patras, GR-265 04 Patras, Greece
tissue decomposition and post-mortem decay is a major environmental problem (Bhatti et al. 2014). Odor is defined as anything able to stimulate the olfactory system. In fact, the theoretical minimum concentration of odorant stimulus necessary for odor detection in the 50% of the population is defined as the odor detection threshold (USEPA 2001). The olfactory rec
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