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Health risk assessment due to emissions from medical waste incinerator in Malaysia
Rahim Fariha, L. M1, Mimi H. Hassim2, Mutahharah M. Mokhtar3, Kamarizan Kidam4.
In this research, health risk assessment due to the emission of pollutants from a
medical waste incinerator located within industrial estate in the northern part of
Malaysia was presented. The influence of pollutants emission in the vicinity of the
incineration plant was the main concern in this research. The measured emissions
of pollutants from the stacks of the studied plant that may pose risk to human
health and the environment are compared against the acceptable limit as in the
Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulation 2014. Next, the levels of pollutants in
ambient air are assessed in comparison with the guideline established by the
Malaysia Ambient Air Quality Guideline (MAAQG). The health risk assessment was
then conducted by calculating the quantitative risk for non-carcinogenic and
carcinogenic pollutants. The study reveals that the total cancer risk due to
emission of carcinogenic pollutants from the incinerator is 1.84 x 10-5, which
indicates risky circumstances as the calculated risk is higher than the benchmark
of acceptable risk of 1 x10-6. Meanwhile the health risk calculated due to emission
of non-carcinogenic pollutants ranges between 0.000286 and 0.1, indicating
acceptable risk. The result shows that the non-carcinogenic pollutants emitted
from the studied medical waste incinerator are within the acceptable exposure
limits. However, for carcinogens, the released amounts may cause human health
risk, and the
Affiliation:
- Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
- Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
- Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
- Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
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Indexation |
Indexed by |
MyJurnal (2021) |
H-Index
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6 |
Immediacy Index
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0.000 |
Rank |
0 |
Indexed by |
Scopus 2020 |
Impact Factor
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CiteScore (1.4) |
Rank |
Q3 (Engineering (all)) |
Additional Information |
SJR (0.191) |
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