Source appointment and health risk assessment for atmospheric carbonyls in hot tropical city, Vietnam

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2024-12, Vol.196 (12), p.1198, Article 1198
• Main Authors: Huy, Duong Huu, Nguyen, Nguyen Thao, Chi, Nguyen Doan Thien, Takenaka, Norimichi, Hien, To Thi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetaldehyde; Acetaldehyde - analysis; Acetone; Acetone - analysis; Acrolein; Aerosols; Age groups; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Cancer; Carbonyl compounds; Carbonyls; Carcinogens; Cities; City centres; Dry season; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Exhausts; Formaldehyde; Formaldehyde - analysis; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Humans; Inhalation; Inhalation Exposure - analysis; Inhalation Exposure - statistics & numerical data; Mixing ratio; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Outdoor air quality; Propionaldehyde; Rainy season; Respiration; Risk Assessment; Spatial distribution; Vehicle emissions; Vehicle Emissions - analysis; Vietnam; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Weighting methods; Wet season; Winter
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-024-13368-6

The aim of this study is to assess the spatiotemporal variation, sources, and health impacts of the carbonyl compounds (carbonyls) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the third-most populous city in Southeast Asia. Sampling was conducted according to the US.EPA Method TO-11A, from 2012 to 2016 in both the dry and the rainy seasons at twelve sites. The result shows that the carbonyl mixing ratios are high when compared to typical cities. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acetone are the most abundant carbonyls together accounting for 89% of the measured carbonyls. The carbonyl mixing ratio in rainy (46.0 ± 32.2 ppb) is about twofold higher than that in dry (23.7 ± 10.3 ppb). An inverse distance weighting method was adopted to map the spatial distribution of carbonyls across the city. The result shows that the carbonyl levels tended to be high in the city center. Three carbonyl sources are resolved by the PCA/APCS method: industrial sources and solvent usage (54%), vehicle exhausts (24%), cooking emissions (11%). Both lifetime cancer risk (LCR) and non-cancer hazard index (HIs) were calculated to estimate the health impacts on the community due to inhalation exposure to current carbonyl levels. The LCR values vary from 5.31 × 10 −6 to 5.75 × 10 −5 for formaldehyde higher than those of 6.61 × 10 −7 to 1.36 × 10 −5 for acetaldehyde, which mostly exceeded the US.EPA recommendation for five age groups. The hazard quotient values are 12.0 to 68.4 for acrolein, 0.44 to 2.84 for acetaldehyde, 0.55 to 1.85 for formaldehyde, and 0.13 to 0.89 for propionaldehyde.