Baseline Soil Dioxin Levels from Sites Where Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Construction Is Planned throughout China: Characteristics, Sources and Risk Assessment

Ruxing Wan, Jun Wu, Jing Guo, Jiabao Qu, Ling Li () and Ling Tang
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Ruxing Wan: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Jun Wu: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Jing Guo: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Jiabao Qu: Appraisal Center for Environment and Engineering, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Ling Li: International School of Economics and Management, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China
Ling Tang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: The determination of baseline dioxins levels in soils is fundamental for the quantitative assessment of the net environmental and health impacts of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plants, which remains unexplored. Therefore, this study develops a Chinese baseline soil dioxins database (covering 918 soil samples from 292 pre-construction MSW incineration plants nationwide during 2016–2020) to thoroughly explore the baseline contamination characteristics and health risks of dioxins in soils. The empirical results show that (1) for concentration levels, the baseline international toxic equivalency (I-TEQ) concentrations vary from 0.0015 to 32 ng I-TEQ/kg, which are close to or even lower than those in most existing studies and show significant heterogeneity across provinces; (2) for dioxins homolog, highly chlorinated dioxins (i.e., PCDDs) are the dominant contributor to the total dioxins in soils (contributing 54.30% of the total I-TEQ concentrations), implying that dioxins in baseline soils often have an atmospheric fingerprint; and (3) for health risks, the carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk of dioxins in soils are mostly below acceptable levels, close to or even lower than the results of previous studies. Despite these results being considered as quite preliminary, they have certain implications for local authorities. Future studies can expand the size of the database and the generalizability of the results, and if necessary, establish a long-term dynamic monitoring of dioxins in soils for systematically evaluating the net impact of MSW incineration on environment and human health.

Keywords: dioxins; waste incineration; baseline levels; contaminant characteristics; health risk assessment; surface soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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