OCCUPATION AND HEALTH ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (23): 3272-3277.

• Treatise • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Exposure characteristics of formaldehyde and benzene series in hotels in Nanjing and health risk assessment for employees

Xinwei ZHANG, Lilin XIONG, Yunfei JIA, Qiuyuan ZHU, Ming GE, Yanzhao TANG()   

  1. Department of Environmental Health,Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention,Nanjing,Jiangsu 210003,China
  • Received:2025-03-02 Revised:2025-03-17 Online:2025-12-01 Published:2025-12-10
  • Contact: Yanzhao TANG
  • About author:TANG Yanzhao,Associate chief physician,E-mail:124942251@qq.com

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the annual dynamic changes of formaldehyde and benzene series in indoor air of hotels in Nanjing City,and assess the potential health risks for employees,providing data support and reference for the hotel industry to develop more effective hygiene management strategies and measures. Methods During 2021 to 2024,18 hotels will be randomly selected from various districts of Nanjing each year,totaling 72 hotels. A total of 287 air samples were collected to detect the concentrations of formaldehyde,benzene,toluene,and xylene in the hotel air. The Kruskal-Wallis H rank sum test was used to compare the concentrations of four air pollutants in different levels of hotel and different years. Further,according to the health risk assessment model recommended by the US National Environmental Protection Agency and the methods in WS/ T777-2021 "Technical Guidelines for Assessing Environmental Health Risks Posed by Chemical Substances",the carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk assessment of the four pollutants were carried out in combination with the actual work environment exposure of employees obtained through a questionnaire survey. Results The overall pass rates were 91.30% for formaldehyde,100.0% for benzene,100.0% for toluene,and 100.0% for xylene. In 2021,2023,and 2024,the median mass concentrations of formaldehyde,benzene,and xylene showed a trend of M(express hotels)>M(hotels below three stars)>M(hotels above three stars)(P<0.05). The median mass concentration of formaldehyde showed an overall upward trend from 2021 to 2024,the median mass concentrations of benzene,toluene,and xylene showed an overall downward trend. The carcinogenic risk value of formaldehyde was 6.97×10-6-3.00×10-4,and the carcinogenic risk value of benzene was 4.18×10-7-1.25×10-5. The median non-carcinogenic risk value of formaldehyde was greater than 1,while the non-carcinogenic risk values of benzene,toluene,and xylene were all less than 1. Conclusion From 2021 to 2024,there is a phenomenon of excessive formaldehyde concentration in the air of some hotels in Nanjing. Exposure to formaldehyde and benzene poses different risks to the health of hotel employees. Therefore,further in-depth analysis is needed and attention should be paid to it.

Key words: Hotel, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Methylbenzene, Xylene, Health risk assessment

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