[pp.57-64]
Ai SAKAMOTO and Hiromichi FUKUI (Keio University)
Abstract:
This research examines the risk to human health following exposure to chemicals, with a case study on 1,3-butadiene in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. A critical point of this research is the consideration of receptor's activity patterns, by means of characterization of time and fields of daily activities of the group. In the former part of the article, we propose an methodological framework, Activity-based Spatial Exposure Model (ASEM). In the latter part of the article, the results are discussed from two points: 1) group exposure estimated by ASEM has a different spatial distribution from environmental concentration; 2) characterized cancer risk and non-cancer risk implies that activity field sometimes contributes to a higher risk than that contributed by proximity to the source of chemicals. These lead us to the conclusion that the receptor's activity, which had been little attention as individual variability, is a vital factor to estimate individual and population exposure.
Key Word:
chemical exposure, risk assessment, Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, variability, activity pattern, Geographic Information Sciences