[Health risk assessment and ozone formation potentials of volatile organic compounds from pharmaceutical industry in Zhejiang Province].

In the present study, the main source and characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from pharmaceutical industry in Zhejiang Province were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Based on these results, the internationally recognized evaluation model for health risk assessment and ozone formation potentials (OFP) was adopted to preliminarily assess the environmental impact and health risk of those VOCs. The results showed that the OFP of VOCs was in the range of 16.1-79, 2 mL x m(-3), based on the maximum incremental reactivity. The principal contribution of VOCs was from nine kinds of substances including ethyl acetate, acetone, toluene and xylene, etc. Moreover, the health risk of VOCs was mainly generated from benzene, ethylene oxide, dichloromethane and formaldehyde owing to their carcinogenicity, which could account for more than 69% in the value of non-carcinogenic risk and 100% in the cancer risk. Additionally, according to the comparison of these assessments, the environmental hazards and health risk produced by VOCs could not be neglected during the development of VOCs emissions standards, especially in the screening of the control factors for the standards.