Human Health Risk Assessment of a Civilian-Accessible Active Firing Range

Abstract

The Korean Federation of Teachers Association, the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the Korea Ministry of National Defense (KMND) concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on opening military sites to elementary, middle, and high school students to strengthen national security consciousness. According to the MOU, the KMND decided to open an active firing range; however, due to the ongoing firing activity, site contamination by toxic energetic materials (EMs) was suspected. To identify whether opening the firing range might pose a human health threat to the students and their teachers visiting the site, we conducted a risk assessment to evaluate potential risk. The risk assessment results revealed that both cancer risk and non-cancer risk were negligible. The potential cancer risk was in the range of 1.9 x 1011 and 1.4 x 1010, and the potential non-cancer hazard index was in the range of 2.3 x 106 and 4.9 x 106.