Environmental Engineering / Çevre Mühendisliği
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Article Soil Contamination by Metals/Metalloids Around an Industrial Region and Associated Human Health Risk Assessment(2024) Demirtepe, HaleIndustrial, agricultural, transportation, and waste management activities cause soil contamination by metals/metalloids. Soil contamination is an essential global concern since it poses a significant risk to human health. Particularly in areas near heavy industry, people are more prone to exposure. This study aims to determine current metal/metalloid contamination levels in soil from Aliağa industrial region and assess associated health risks. Five surface soil samples were collected from the region, representing residential, agricultural areas, and downwind of possible sources. Pollution indices were calculated to determine the metal(loid)s with anthropogenic inputs, and a human health risk assessment was conducted. As a result, significant to extreme enrichment of arsenic (As), moderate to significant enrichment of zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn), and very high enrichment of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) were observed in soil samples. Possible sources of contamination were iron and steel facilities with electric arc furnaces and oil combustion. Non-carcinogenic risk assessment revealed acceptable risks of exposure to Aliağa soils, while exposure scenarios had a great impact on estimated risks. Arsenic, chromium (Cr), and Pb appeared to be significant contributors to non-carcinogenic risk. Carcinogenic risks associated with exposure to As, Pb, Cr, cobalt (Co), and Cd in soils were evaluated to be at an acceptable level. This study only considered soil exposure pathways; hence, a comprehensive risk assessment is deemed necessary not to underestimate the risk of living around an industrial region. Nevertheless, the study provided crucial information for the current hot spots for metal(loid)s in the region and human exposure level.Book Part Impacts of Remediation of Halogenated Organic Compounds in Soils and Sediments(IGI Global, 2022) Demirtepe, HaleHalogenated hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) have been used in various industrial applications and are present in many commercial products. Due to their emissions during manufacturing and discharges as wastes, halogenated HOCs such as polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers are ubiquitously found in the environment and create contaminated sites. To remove the contamination from these sites, various remediation techniques have been useful. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the impacts of traditional and emerging remediation techniques on ecosystem. One of the traditional remediation techniques is dredging and the mostly studied emerging remediation techniques are bioaugmentation and biostimulation. The efficiency of these techniques is also evaluated regarding reduction in contaminant mass. Overall, this chapter presents the efficiency and possible impacts of dredging, bioaugmentation and biostimulation of soils and sediments, and the implications include the evaluation of most feasible remediation techniques by using life cycle assessment.Article Citation - WoS: 25Citation - Scopus: 27Targeted and Suspect Screening of Plasticizers in House Dust To Assess Cumulative Human Exposure Risk(Elsevier, 2021) Demirtepe, Hale; Melymuk, Lisa; Codling, Garry; Murinova, Lubica Palkovicova; Richterova, Denisa; Rasplova, Vladimira; Trnovec, TomasIndoor dust is an important exposure route to anthropogenic chemicals used in consumer products. Plasticizers are common product additives and can easily leach out of the product and partition to dust. Investigations of plasticizers typically focus on a subset of phthalate esters (PEs), but there are many more PEs in use, and alternative plasticizers (APs) are seeing greater use after recognition of adverse health effects of PEs. In this study we use full scan high resolution mass spectrometry for targeted and suspect screening of PEs and APs in house dust and to assess the potential risk of human exposure. House dust samples from Eastern Slovakia were investigated and concentrations of Sigma 12PEs and Sigma(5)APs ranged 12-2765 mu g/g and 45-13,260 mu g/g, respectively. APs were at similar levels to PEs, indicating common usage of these compounds in products in homes. Evaluation of individual compound toxicity combined with human intake via dust ingestion suggested PEs are of lower priority compared to semivolatile organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls due to their lower toxicity. However, cumulative risk assessment (CRA) is a more appropriate evaluation of risk, considering the presences of many PEs in dust and their similar toxic mode of action. CRA based on median toxicity reference values (TRVs) suggested acceptable risks for dust ingestion, however, the wide range of literature-derived TRVs is a large uncertainty, especially for the APs. Use of newer TRVs suggest risk from dust ingestion alone, i.e. not even considering diet, inhalation, and dermal contact. Additionally, screening of full-scan instrumental spectra identified a further 40 suspect PE compounds, suggesting the CRA based on the 12 target PEs underestimates the risk. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.