Human health risk assessment: application of the NORISC-HRA and ROME models at two test sites

F. Quercia, A. Vecchio, M. Falconi, L. Togni, E. Wcislo, J. Dlugosz and M. Korcz

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess different functions and output variations from two models for human health risk assessment of contaminated sites: NORISC-HRA developed by IETU, and ROME 2.1 developed by APAT. For this purpose, two former industrial sites were assessed with the application of these models: Site A (chemical factory) – contaminated by heavy metals, and Site B (petrol station) – contaminated by BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes). The major differences recognized concern some default input parameters adopted by both models: toxicological parameters (up to two orders of magnitude) and estimates of dust concentration in air (two orders of magnitude) resulted from the different particulate emission factors used. According to NORISC-HRA automatic risk calculation procedure, the area of contaminated soil is divided into a number of sampling point polygons over which the risk is individually assessed, on the basis of analytical data. Conversely, ROME 2.1 envisages a preliminary identification of the source area in the conceptual site model definition, on the basis of observed soil analytical data and other information from site investigation. NORISC-HRA does not include the leaching of contaminants from soil to groundwater and related exposure routes.

Key words: comparison, decision support, models, risk assessment

© 2007 EPP Publications Ltd

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Article code 718