Fractional Fuzzy Simulation–Based Health Risk Assessment for Toluene Contaminated Aquifers

ABSTRACT

This article integrates a fractional fuzzy health risk approach with multi-objective analysis in consideration of multiple exposure pathways in order to assess human health risk in petroleum hydrocarbon (PH)–contaminated aquifers. A PH-contaminated groundwater aquifer located in the Pinggu District of Beijing, China, is then studied for demonstrating the applicability of the proposed approach. The results show that with more fuzzy parameters considered in the risk assessment procedure, the multi-parameter fuzzy (MPF) result is more accurate than that from the single-parameter fuzzy (SPF) model. The comparison results also indicate the advantage of the proposed fractional fuzzy approach in assessing parameter uncertainty. The non-carcinogenic risk assessment results imply that the contaminated groundwater in the study area is in the medium risk level, and remediation plans for soil and groundwater should be considered to ensure safe groundwater utilization.

Key Words:

• groundwater
• risk assessment
• human exposure
• petroleum hydrocarbons