Abstract
Waste oil-based drill cuttings contain dioxins and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have the potential to cause serious health effects in humans. Therefore, this paper took oil-based drill cuttings (OBDCs) as the research object and carried out the testing of VOCs and dioxins content by using GC–MS and HRGCS-HRMS and comprehensively evaluated the content, composition and distribution pattern of VOCs and dioxins and the risk to human health posed by the two pollutants in OBDCs. The results showed that the VOCs did not exceed the emission limits in ESPPI (GB 31571–2015), but it is vital to recognise that 1,2-dichloropropane has the potential to cause cancer risk, with soil and groundwater risk control values of 662.95 mg·kg−1 and 0.066 mg·kg−1, respectively. Benzene, 1,2-dichloropropane and 8 other VOCs pose a non-carcinogenic risk to humans. The levels of polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) exceeded those of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), which accounted for 95.76 percent of the total PCDD/Fs, 2,3,4,7,8-P5CDF (56.00%), 2,3,7,8-T4CDF (9.20%), 1,2,3,6,7,8-H6CDF (8.80%) and 1,2,3,7,8-P5CDF (8.00%) were the main contributing monomers. The findings of the assessment on exposure risk indicate that there is a respiratory risk to oil-based drill cuttings dioxins for adults and children exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) acceptable daily intake (ADI) (1–4 pgTEQ/kg/d). Finally, three aspects of solid waste pre-treatment prior to incineration, the incineration process and post incineration were used to reduce the environmental and human health risks from dioxins.
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Abbreviations
- VOCs:
-
Volatile organic compounds
- OBDCs:
-
Oil-based drill cuttings
- ESPPI:
-
Emission standards for pollutants in the petrochemical industry
- PCDFs:
-
Polychlorinated dibenzofurans
- PCDDs:
-
Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins
- WHO:
-
World Health Organisation
- ADI:
-
Acceptable daily intake
- GC-MS:
-
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
- HRGCS-HRMS:
-
High-resolution gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry
- USEPA:
-
The United States Environmental Protection Agency
- HI:
-
Hazard index
- ILCR:
-
Lifetime cancer risk
- EB:
-
Ethylbenzene
- MX:
-
M-Xylene
- OX:
-
O-Xylene
- IPB:
-
Isopropylbenzene
- 1,3,5-TMB:
-
1,3,5-Trimethylbenzene
- 1,2-DCP:
-
1,2-Dichloropropane
- DCM:
-
Dichloromethane
- PhH:
-
Benzene
- PhMe:
-
Toluene
- PERC:
-
Tetrachloroethylene
- MCB:
-
Chlorobenzene
- EB:
-
Ethylbenzene
- 2,3,7,8-T4CDF:
-
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzofuran
- 1,2,3,7,8-P5CDF:
-
1,2,3,7,8-Pentachlorodibenzofuran
- 2,3,4,7,8-P5CDF:
-
2,3,4,7,8-Pentachlorodibenzofuran
- 1,2,3,4,7,8-H6CDF:
-
1,2,3,4,7,8-Hexachlorodibenzofuran
- 2,3,4,6,7,8-H6CDF:
-
2,3,4,6,7,8-Hexachlorodibenzofuran
- 1,2,3,7,8,9-H6CDF:
-
1,2,3,7,8,9-Hexachlorodibenzofuran
- 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-H7CDF:
-
1,2,3,4,6,7,8-Heptachlorodibenzofuran
- 1,2,3,4,7,8,9-H7CDF:
-
1,2,3,4,7,8,9-Heptachlorodibenzofuran
- O8CDF:
-
Octachlorodibenzofuran
- 2,3,7,8-T4CDD:
-
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- 1,2,3,7,8-P5CDD:
-
1,2,3,7,8-Pentachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- 1,2,3,4,7,8-H6CDD:
-
1,2,3,4,7,8-Hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- 1,2,3,6,7,8-H6CDD:
-
1,2,3,6,7,8-Hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- 1,2,3,7,8,9-H6CDD:
-
1,2,3,7,8,9-Hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-H7CDD:
-
1,2,3,4,7,8,9-Heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxins
- O8CDD:
-
Octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
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Funding
This study was funded by science and technology research project of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission of China (KJQN202100723), Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Reuse for Building Materials (SWR-2023–003) and Key Special Project of Technology Innovation and Application Development of Chongqing, China (CSTB2023TIAD-KPX0074).
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Chao-qiang Wang mainly contribute to material preparation, manuscript preparation and manuscript editing and revision mainly. Yan Ying contribute to study design, experimental studies, data analysis and manuscript editing and revision. Xu-dong Mei mainly contribute to manuscript editing and experimental design. Feng-lin Xu mainly contribute to manuscript editing and experimental design. Zhong Chen mainly contribute to manuscript editing and experimental design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, Cq., Ying, Y., Mei, Xd. et al. Human health risk assessment of volatile organic compounds in oil-based drill cuttings of shale gas. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 16092–16105 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32322-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32322-0