Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) models allow cancer risks and both acute and long-term health risks to be derived from air pollutant concentrations measured by monitors or predicted by dispersion models. These health impact predictions are generally much greater in specificity and detail than the conclusions that can be obtained by comparison to standard air pollutant criteria issued by governments and can be a valuable tool in considering the environmental justice implications of a given facility.
This study examines the utility of one HHRA methodology, the U.S. EPA Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol (HHRAP). It builds on a previous paper which evaluated the HARP risk assessment tool for similar purposes. HHRAP was developed by U.S. EPA to provide a means of simulating the risk caused by multi-pathway (air, soil, water, food, etc.) exposure to more than 200 air pollutants. It provides a standardized framework for risk assessments, but with significant flexibility to adapt the “default” configuration to appropriately model unique local circumstances and to account for the pollutant exposures associated with different lifestyles and food sources. It also allows adjustment of health effect response parameters, which HARP does not.
The method and results of an example study, examining the human health impacts of a metals recycling facility, are shown. The example case uses the BREEZE Risk Analyst software package, which imports dispersion modelling results, automates the U.S. EPA HHRAP calculations (and allows them to be customised), and provides quantitative cancer risk and health risk increment results in a GIS format that can easily be integrated with other GIS datasets relevant to risk assessment or environmental justice, such as population and demographic data.
Authors: Brian Holland, Andrew Martin, Tiffany Stefanescu
Theme: Air quality health effects
Keywords: risk assessment, risk, HHRAP, air dispersion modelling, environmental justice, ESRI, GIS
Presented at: Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ)’s International Clean Air and Environment Conference, September 2022
