Emission characteristics and health risk assessment of oil mist and VOCs in several typical industrial processes

Oil mist and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are common industrial pollutants that pose serious health risks to exposed workers. However, the emission characteristics and combined health impacts of these pollutants across different industrial processes remain inadequately understood. This study investigated four representative processes: one cold process (furniture spraying, FS) and three hot processes (plastic material calendering, PMC; carpet printing, CP; polyvinyl chloride glove drying, PGD). We characterized oil mist and VOC emissions through both average and instantaneous concentration measurements and evaluated health impacts using three key metrics: deposition flux (DF), lifetime cancer risk (LCR) and hazard quotient (HQ). Results showed that particle number concentrations (>0.3 μm) ranged from 1.24×10 8 to 1.25×10 9 particles m -3 , and mass concentrations varied between 1.148 and 5.654 mg·m -3 . The FS process emitted the highest VOC concentration (41.250 mg·m -3 ), significantly exceeding the other three processes (1.878–3.319 mg·m -3 ). Oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs) were commonly detected across all processes. Only the FS process exhibited a measurable LCR of 6.92 × 10 -5 , primarily attributable to ethylbenzene. The FS process also showed the highest comprehensive health risk, with elevated HQ values for both oil mist (0.077) and VOCs (2.496) even under the application of air filtration, while the HQ values for the other three processes can be reduced to below 1 with effective air filtration. These findings offer important insights for developing targeted risk mitigation strategies based on process-specific emission profiles and pollutant characteristics. • Emissions of oil mist and VOCs were characterized for four industrial processes. • OVOCs were commonly emitted across all processes. • The PGD process showed a total DF of (1.16±0.034) ×10 9 particles h -1 . • The furniture spraying process posed the highest overall health risk (HQ = 2.57). • The FS process requires ventilation and ethylbenzene removal to protect health.