Environmental Risk Mapping of Hazardous Air Pollutants: Verification and Visualization of Atmospheric Environment in Saitama

Abstract

Using available PRTR and environmental monitoring data, the visualization of human health risks due to hazardous air pollutants in Saitama was examined. A simple regression analysis was conducted to verify the relationship between PRTR release amounts and measured concentrations of the eight target chemical substances. The agreement between ambient air concentrations estimated from the releases of target chemical substances into the air and measured concentrations was verified, and hazard quotients (HQs) indicating hazardous properties were calculated from each dataset. HQs were plotted on a map of Saitama, creating an environmental risk map to visualize the toxicity status of the eight chemical substances. As a result, a correlation was found between the amounts of reported releases and measured concentrations for five chemical substances, and there were no areas where HQs exceeded one for those substances. The distribution of HQ was different for each compound, and areas with high HQ were observed for ethylene oxide and formaldehyde. As the environmental risk map presented in this study effectively visualizes air quality status, and is simple and inexpensive to create, we propose a environmental risk mapping method that can be used to promote the management of chemical substances in factories and business establishments.