[Pollution Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of VOCs Fugitively Emitted from Typical Brewers].

Food processing plants are an important industrial source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Research on the unorganized emissions of VOCs to the surrounding environment from food processing plants is still quite scarce. The purpose of this study was to investigate the concentration characteristics, odor pollution, and health risk of the VOCs fugitively emitted from the brewing industry. The concentration characteristics of VOCs fugitively emitted from a typical vinegar factory and a typical distillery were detected via portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The thresholds of the diluted multiple and sensory methods were also used for analyzing the VOCs. In addition, the assessment of health risk was conducted according to the US EPA evaluation model. The results show that the concentrations of the total VOCs emitted from the vinegar factory and the distillery were 0.968 mg·m and 0.293 mg·m, respectively. Ethyl acetate and acetic acid were the main VOCs in the atmosphere of the vinegar plant, accounting for 76.3% and 13.5% of the total VOCs, respectively. The VOCs of the distillery were mainly characterized by ethanol and ethyl acetate, which accounted for 56.3% and 30.4% of the total VOCs, respectively. Oxygen-containing VOCs were the most important component of the studied brewing industry source. The total odor indices of the VOCs emitted from the vinegar factory and the distillery were both higher than 1, which indicates that their unorganized emission of VOCs have odor pollution to the atmosphere. The odor concentrations of the vinegar factory and the distillery were also higher than the standard limit of malodorous pollutants. The results of the health risk assessment show that the carcinogenic risk indices of VOCs were 2.45×10 and 5.25×10, respectively, which exceeded the suggested risk value by the EPA but were lower than the OSHA and ICRP values.