Hosted by the SOT Occupational and Public Health Specialty Section
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous hazardous air pollutants that are emitted from multiple sources such as anthropogenic disasters. Typical disaster responses include targeted monitoring for disaster-specific VOCs and using this information to guide response efforts. However, recent data collected from non-targeted analysis (NTA) of disaster-emitted VOCs show numerous VOCs are emitted from these disasters that are associated with acute, adverse health effects. Thus, incorporating additional VOCs into targeted monitoring approaches may better inform human exposure risks and improve disaster response efforts. This webinar will review the NTA data of disaster-emitted VOCs from the My Way Trading (MWT) plastics recycling facility fire in Richmond, Indiana and will compare the results across additional, recently collected disaster datasets to analyze VOC emission patterns. Through the comparison of these datasets, we aim to determine if VOC emission patterns persist across disasters to help inform targeted monitoring efforts for disaster-specific VOCs. Furthermore, in addition to disasters, VOC exposures are also of concern for communities surrounded by heavy industrial operations (fenceline communities). This webinar will finish by discussing how NTA of mobile VOC monitoring can also be used to characterize the VOC exposure burden in fenceline communities. Together, this overview of non-targeted, VOC analyses highlight how this approach can improve the assessment of disaster emissions, identify and prioritize VOC mixtures for future toxicity studies, and can be used to characterize and support ongoing efforts to improve the air quality, and ultimately the health of fenceline communities.
Speaker
Eva Vitucci, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
Winner of the 2026 OPHSS Paper of the Year Award