Comparative Health Risk Assessment of Asbestos in Tehran, Iran

Health risk assessment has been used to investigate the cancer and non-cancer risk of Asbestos in the air of Tehran, Iran. Thisstudy focused on the risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma on the residents of the region. It presents an overview of Asbestosconcentration in 31 samples with the average concentration of 0.01f/ml in different districts in Tehran. Results provided by EPA(IRIS) analysis showed the total lifetime cancer risk of 46.3 × 10−5. Based on the risk calculations presented in EPA (1986a), theaverage cancer risk value of lung cancer and mesothelioma was calculated as a discrete value for smokers and nonsmokers.Assuming lifetime continuous exposure due to inhalation, the expected incidence is 46 and 152 mesothelioma deaths, and 42 and13 lung cancer deaths per 100,000 persons for smokers and nonsmokers, respectively. In addition, In accordance with the AirQuality Guidelines of the World Health Organization database, the extra risk of lung cancer between 2.42×10-5 and 1.13×10-3, forsmokers and 2.86×10-6 and 1.13×10-3 for nonsmokers was calculated.

Keywords:

Health risk , Asbestos , EPA , Inhalation