| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 環境醫學研究所 === 94 === Over the decades, petrochemical industry plays an important role in the economic development and prosperity of Taiwan. Meanwhile, it is an important emission source for atmospheric VOCs as some specific VOCs are attributable to human carcinogenic effects and respiratory diseases. The conclusions, yet, have not been exactly consistent due partly to the different study groups, individual susceptibility, latency period of disease, research method and incomplete exposure data when the investigation took place. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the health effects of residences by exposure data, risk assessment and epidemiologic investigation near the two petrochemical industries of different developing time in Taiwan. The Kaohsiung and Yunlin petrochemical industry were selected as exposure areas and the cancers, respiratory system, nerve system and cardiovascular diseases were chosen to be index diseases. Exposure scenarios based on the emission data and risk assessment profiles were quoted from the related studies. SIR and SMR were calculated to examine the health implication for living around the neighborhood of industrial of petrochemical factories.
The risk assessment was estimated by the exposure scenarios based on the emission data collected for selected carcinogenic VOCs emitted in Kaohsiung petrochemical industries. The results showed that the personal lifetime cancer risks of residences near the Kaohsiung petrochemical industries were higher than 10-6, and most of the villages were at high risk of hazardous health effects. However, the lifetime cancer risk values higher than 10-6 that evaluated based on environment impact assessment and permitted emission value by EPA were located in the exposure zones, except for the lifetime cancer risk of benzene.
In 1981-2003, the crude mortality of male and female were 6.22% and 4.06 ‰, respectively, in Kaohsiung studying area. The crude mortality of male and female were 8.73 ‰ and 7.01 ‰, respectively, in Yunlin studying area in 1996-2003. The crude mortality of liver cancer was highest in both areas. For the investigation of SMR for index diseases in these study areas, when using either the entire population of Taiwan or only those residents of Kaohsiung/Yunlin County as the reference group, the SMR of total death, total cancer for males and the cancer of other ingestive organs and peritoneum, COPD with bronchiectasis, Brain blood vessel diseases for females appeared to be higher. Moreover, the SMR of some diseases increased as the time passed by. In the other studying area, the SMR of liver cancer, lung cancer, heart diseases and Brain blood vessel diseases appeared to be higher.
The SIR of kidney cancer for male and leukemia, brain cancer, melanoma for female were a steadily increasing trend in Kaohsiung study areas. In general, the SIR of liver cancer was significantly higher in the industry and non-industry areas in Yunlin County, but the morbidity decreased.
The results from the exposure assessment, risk assessment and epidemiologic study were consistent in suggesting the exposure time to emissions on the health effects of residences near the petrochemical industry. However, the causal relationship should be affirmed by adjusting the confounding factors. Though no absolute conclusions can be properly drawn at this point, the results are apt to serve as reference to form a future management plan for factories in these complexes.
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