The annoyance potential for odor sources can be evaluated by separation distances. A separation distance between a standard pig farm and a residential area was investigated by the AERMOD model. The studied area comprised four sites in Korea. The study sites were Paju, Yangpyeong, Suwon, and Icheon, respectively. The separation distances criteria of the three reference Odor Impact Criteria (OIC) were used to evaluate the separation distance. Results show that separation distances for the four sites were calculated 20 m from the fence in the existing pig farm criteria case [exceedance probability P (%) = 2.0% and concentration = 6 OU] in Ireland. In the case of the new pig farm criteria [(exceedance probability P (%) = 2.0% and concentration = 3 OU) of Ireland, results show that the separation distances of the four locations were between 120 m and 145 m from the fence. These values were about 3.0~4.5 times larger than those of the existing pig farm criteria case. In the case of a concentration of 1 OU and the exceedance probability P (%) of a 2.0% criteria, the separation distances of the four sites ranged from 250 m to 290 m.
This paper presents the results of a human health effect for H2S emission standard of incinerators in Seoul, Korea. The four selected incinerators of Gangnam, Mapo, Nowon and Yangcheon were chosen as the domains of study. Air dispersion modelling (AERMOD) was used to predict the ground level concentration within 3 km distance of the emission source. The emissions at the incinerators studied ranged from 0.0721 (Yangcheon) to 0.3007 g/s (Gangnam). These values were about three orders of magnitude smaller than that of Canadian geothermal power plants. Based on the health risk assessment, different health risks were identified for short-term and long-term dispersion of the studied areas. The short-term hazard quotient (HQ) for H2S of Gangnam and Nowon incinerators were greater than the acceptable limit (i.e., 1.0) in some locations. However the long-term HQ for H2S of all incinerators were lower than the acceptable limit.