Current Status of Air Toxics Management and Its Strategies for Controlling Emissions in Taiwan

Our plain-English summary of Current Status of Air Toxics Management and Its Strategies for Controlling Emissions in Taiwan, by W.T. Tsai (Toxics, 2016).

The study

• Author: W.T. Tsai
• Journal: Toxics
• Published: 2016;4(2)
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Since the 1970s, hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), so-called air toxics, have been of great concern because they can cause serious human health effects and have adverse effects on the environment. More noticeably, some of them are known to be human carcinogens. The objective of this paper is to investigate the regulatory systems and human health effects of air toxics which have been designated by the Taiwan government under the Air Pollution Control Act. These toxic air pollutants include acutely toxic gas (i.e., ammonia, chlorine, fluorides, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, nitric acid, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid), gas containing heavy metals, and carcinogenic chemicals (including formaldehyde, vinyl chloride, asbestos and matter containing asbestos, dioxins and furans, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls). In line with international concern about the carcinogenic risk and environmental persistence of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) and heavy metals in recent years, the current status in monitoring and reducing the emissions of PCDDs/PCDFs from stationary sources was analyzed as a case study in the present study. Furthermore, the control strategies for reducing emissions of air toxics from stationary sources in Taiwan were also addressed.

In plain English

This paper, which the author called a brief overview, described how Taiwan regulates hazardous air pollutants ("air toxics") under its Air Pollution Control Act. It was not a study of exposed people. Asbestos and matter containing asbestos was one of Taiwan's designated air toxics; the introduction noted the US had specified asbestos as a hazardous air pollutant in 1973. In a table compiled from international agencies, asbestos was marked a US EPA hazardous air pollutant and a confirmed human carcinogen by IARC, the US National Toxicology Program and ACGIH. The paper gave no asbestos measurements or emissions data and did not name fiber types. Its stated case study concerned dioxins from stationary sources. Citing a Taiwan EPA survey, the author reported that dioxin emissions from stationary sources fell from 327.4 g I-TEQ in 2002 to 52.6 g I-TEQ in 2013, a reduction of 84%. Average ambient dioxin levels were 0.031 pg I-TEQ/m3 in 2013, compared with 0.089 in 2002. The author concluded that dioxin emissions in Taiwan were decreasing. The author recommended standards and regular monitoring for carcinogenic air toxics.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: brief overview (published as a Communication) of Taiwan's regulation of air toxics, with a case study of dioxin (PCDD/PCDF) emissions from stationary sources; heavy metal air levels were also reported; not an epidemiological study
• Who was studied: No human population was studied; the paper examined Taiwan's regulatory system and government monitoring data on air toxics from stationary sources, mainly 2002 to 2013
• Exposure: Air toxics designated under Taiwan's Air Pollution Control Act, including asbestos and matter containing asbestos (no fiber types named, no asbestos data given); the case study covered dioxins (PCDDs/PCDFs), and heavy metal levels were also reported
• Main results:
  • Background in the introduction: asbestos was among the carcinogenic chemicals first specified as hazardous air pollutants under US national emission standards, in 1973
  • In the author's table, asbestos and matter containing asbestos was listed as a US EPA hazardous air pollutant and marked as a confirmed human carcinogen by IARC, the US NTP and ACGIH
  • The paper's stated case study was the monitoring and reduction of PCDD/PCDF emissions from stationary sources
  • Total dioxin emissions from stationary sources in Taiwan were estimated at 327.4 g I-TEQ in 2002, decreasing to 52.6 g I-TEQ in 2013, a reduction of 84%
  • Ambient air dioxin concentrations (average, minimum, maximum) were 0.031, 0.002 and 0.149 pg I-TEQ/m3 in 2013, compared with 0.089, 0.03 and 0.207 pg I-TEQ/m3 in 2002
  • Average ambient concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and nickel were 1.93, 0.48 and 4.41 ng/m3, below the European Commission standards of 6, 5 and 20 ng/m3
  • The author recommended that the Taiwan EPA set air quality guidelines or standards for carcinogenic air toxics
  • The author recommended that the Taiwan EPA and local governments monitor carcinogenic air toxics at regular intervals
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that emissions of dioxins and furans (PCDDs/PCDFs) in Taiwan were decreasing

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Carcinogenic.

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