Advance in Health Risk Assessment Methodology of Brownfield Sites in China

Abstract

At China’s current urbanization rate, it is estimated that 350 million people will be added to its total urban population by 2025 (Woetzel et al. 2009). As cities continue to expand, many older industrial facilities along the edge of, or within, the city boundaries are being relocated or closed, leaving behind derelict, underused and abandoned land contaminated by the former industrial activities, which also are called brownfield sites. These sites can be valuable land for redevelopment but require special intervention to bring them back into beneficial use. Since the beginning of this century, attentions have been being paid to the management of such sites, and the first guidance specified on human health risk assessment of brownfield sites in China was published in 2004 by Jiang (Jiang and Wang 2004). In 2009, the first official technical guideline on investigation and health risk of brownfield sites was issued by Beijing Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau (BQTSB) (BQTSB 2009) followed by the first official soil screening levels for health risk assessment in 2011 (BQTSB 2011). The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) started drafting technical guidelines on site investigation and health risk assessment in 2008, which were issued officially in 2014 (MEP 2014a, b, c), and the national wide soil screening values have been submitted for approval (MEP 2016). Besides, some other developed cities, such as Shanghai, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Guangdong, e.g., have been engaged in drafting relevant technical guidelines and soil screening values (ZQTSB 2013; GQTSB 2014; SEPB 2015a, b). In addition to developing regulatory guidelines to support the management of brownfield sites, the methodologies recommended in issued guidelines have been being applied in assessing human health risk of numerous brownfield sites, and results have been used to help regulars make the final management decisions.