The remediation of contaminated groundwater is a critical component of environmental management. In situ bioremediation (ISB) is a technique used to treat contaminated groundwater by promoting the activity of microorganisms, which transform harmful substances into less toxic or non-toxic forms. The present study investigates social issues regarding the sustainability approach applied to the remediation of contaminated sites by analyzing occupational health and safety (OH&S) impacts on workers involved in the remediation process. Occupational chemical risk is analyzed by comparing two techniques for the remediation of groundwater contaminated by chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs): the pump-and-treat system and biological barriers. A contaminated Italian site, located near an industrial waste disposal site, was analyzed, applying a quantitative approach for chemical risk assessment. This approach is based on the use of a validated algorithm (SNPA software) and environmental measurement campaigns of chemical agents. This study (as far as the authors know) is the first research carried out in this field and shows that the adoption of bio-barriers for remediation is intrinsically safer in terms of OH&S impacts on workers.
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Pietrangeli et al. (2024) studied this question.
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