Shittu Whanda Ja’afaru^1,, Yuanyuan Cheng²

Oil pollution in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is widely reported in literature, the local people in this region face serious health risks caused by exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons (PAHs) while performing daily land use activities; through exposure pathways like inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact. Prolong exposure to these contaminants has been proven to be hazardous to human health. Therefore a thorough understanding of the frequency and magnitude of these exposures, as well as the consequences it has on human health can help develop appropriate mitigation measures. Generic Assessment Criteria (GAC) is derived using widely applicable assumptions about the characteristics and behaviour of contaminants; identify potential pathways and susceptible receptors. Such GACs help to provide nationally consistent guidance for assessing human health risks associated with contaminated sites. Since there is currently no GAC for PAHs in Nigeria, this study developed the GAC for aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons for three rural land use scenarios, using appropriate algorithms and physicochemical parameters of the local people, to determine the concentration at which hydrocarbons may pose risk to human health, susceptible receptors and predominant pathways relative to land use using CLEA v1.6.

human health risk assessment, Generic Assessment Criteria, PAHs, exposure pathways