organophosphate esters

spatial distribution

carcinogenic risk

non-carcinogenic risks

sensitivity analysis

Pollution

Human health risk assessment

The human health risk of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in the urban topsoils of Shenyang, China was assessed in this study. Seventy-four topsoil samples were collected and analyzed, and ΣOPE concentrations varied from 0.0387 to 0.9522 mg/kg -dry weight (dw). OPE concentrations in east and west Shenyang are high, but in the north and south are low. Compared with other studies, OPE pollution levels are higher than farmland soils and lower than site soils, but are similar to other urban soils. The carcinogenic risks ranged from 2.30 × 10^-11 to 4.16 × 10^-10 and 2.21 × 10^-11 to 4.00 × 10^-10 for adults and children respectively. The non-carcinogenic risks ranged from 1.61 × 10^-6 to 2.84 × 10^-5 and 6.17 × 10^-6 to 1.09 × 10^-4 for adults and children, respectively – well below acceptable levels. Tris-(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) is the most important carcinogen, tris-(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP) and tri-iso-butyl phosphate (TiBP) are the most important non-carcinogens. OPE concentrations are the most sensitive parameter that contributed the largest to the total variance of risk, TCEP is the most influential variable for carcinogenic risk, and TCPP, EHDPP and TiBP are the most influential variables for non-carcinogenic risk.