Moon Ji-Eun, Park Si-Hyun, Kim Young-Hyun, Jang Hyeok, Jung Ji-Yun, Yoon Sung-Won, Lee Cheol-Min
Department of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Seokyeong University, 124, Seogyeong-ro, Seongbuk-ku, Seoul 02713, Republic of Korea.
Toxics. 2025 Aug 16;13(8):683. doi: 10.3390/toxics13080683.
Conventional health risk assessments do not adequately reflect short-term exposure characteristics following chemical accidents. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of existing assessment methods and propose a more suitable risk assessment approach for short-term exposure to hazardous chemicals. We analyzed foundational studies used to derive reference concentration (RfC), reference dose (RfD), and minimal risk level (MRL) values and applied these health guidance values (HGVs) to a hypothetical chemical accident scenario. An analysis of the studies underlying each HGV revealed that, except for the RfC for formaldehyde and the RfD for toluene, all values were derived under research conditions comparable to their respective exposure durations. Given the differing toxicity mechanisms between acute and chronic exposures, MRLs that were aligned with the corresponding exposure durations supported more appropriate risk management decisions. The health risk assessment results showed that RfC/RfD-based hazard quotients (HQs) were consistently higher than MRL-based HQs across all age groups and both substances, indicating that RfC/RfD values tend to yield more conservative risk estimates. For formaldehyde, the use of RfC instead of MRL resulted in an additional 208 tiles (2.08 km) being classified as areas of potential concern (HQ > 1) relative to the MRL-based evaluation. These findings highlighted that the selection of HGVs can significantly influence the spatial extent of areas of potential concern, potentially altering health risk determinations for large population groups. This study provides a scientific basis for improving exposure and risk assessment frameworks under short-term exposure conditions. It also serves as valuable foundational data for developing effective and rational risk management strategies during actual chemical accidents. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply MRLs to a short-term chemical accident scenario and directly compare them with traditional reference values.
传统的健康风险评估不能充分反映化学事故后的短期暴露特征。我们旨在评估现有评估方法的有效性，并提出一种更适合短期接触危险化学品的风险评估方法。我们分析了用于推导参考浓度（RfC）、参考剂量（RfD）和最小风险水平（MRL）值的基础研究，并将这些健康指导值（HGVs）应用于一个假设的化学事故场景。对每个HGV背后的研究分析表明，除了甲醛的RfC和甲苯的RfD外，所有值都是在与其各自暴露持续时间相当的研究条件下推导出来的。鉴于急性和慢性暴露之间不同的毒性机制，与相应暴露持续时间一致的MRL支持更合适的风险管理决策。健康风险评估结果表明，在所有年龄组和两种物质中，基于RfC/RfD的危害商（HQs）始终高于基于MRL的HQs，这表明RfC/RfD值往往会产生更保守的风险估计。对于甲醛，使用RfC而不是MRL导致相对于基于MRL的评估，额外有208个街区（2.08平方公里）被归类为潜在关注区域（HQ>1）。这些发现突出表明，HGVs的选择会显著影响潜在关注区域的空间范围，可能改变对大量人群的健康风险判定。本研究为改善短期暴露条件下的暴露和风险评估框架提供了科学依据。它还为在实际化学事故期间制定有效和合理的风险管理策略提供了有价值的基础数据。据我们所知，这是第一项将MRL应用于短期化学事故场景并直接将其与传统参考值进行比较的研究。
