Characteristics, Sources, and Health Risks of Atmospheric PM2.5-Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Hsinchu, Taiwan

Abstract

This study investigated PM 2.5 -bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in order to determine the seasonal changes in total benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (BaPeq) concentrations and to identify contamination sources by using a positive matrix factorization model, a conditional probability function, and characteristic ratios of PAHs in Hsinchu. The sampling period was from September 2014 to August 2015. PM 2.5 samplers equipped with 47-mm quartz membrane filters were operated at a flow rate of 16.7 L min -1 for 48 h. The concentrations of 20 PAHs were determined through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results revealed the PM 2.5 , total PAHs, and BaPeq mass concentrations in the four seasons ranged from 4.91 to 58.5 µg m -3 , 0.21 to 8.08 ng m -3 , and 0.03 to 0.78 ng m -3 , respectively. The PM 2.5 , total PAHs, and BaPeq mass concentrations were in the order winter > autumn > spring > summer and exhibited significant seasonal variations. The carcinogenic potency of PAHs in winter was approximately 6.21 times higher than that in summer. The major BaPeq contributors were BaP, BbF, INP, and DBA. BaP accounted for 49.0% of BaPeq concentrations in PM 2.5 in all four seasons. The annual average lifetime excess cancer risk of PM 2.5 -bound PAHs (1.60 × 10 -5 ) was higher than that specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines (10 -6 ). The two major sources were stationary emission sources and unburned petroleum and traffic emissions, which together accounted for 90.3% of PM 2.5 -bound PAHs.

Measurement of Ambient PAHs in Kumamoto: Differentiating Local and Transboundary Air Pollution

“…1(a, b)). The seasonal pattern of the PAH concentration observed in Kumamoto was similar to that of the ambient PAH concentrations reported in previous studies in East Asia (Tang et al, 2005;Sato et al, 2008;Ma et al, 2010;Yang et al, 2017). The lowest concentration was observed in summer, which is attributed to 1) the 3-4-ring PAHs exhibiting high volatility in summer and 2) photochemical degradation occurring because of the high intensity of solar light and high concentration of ozone (Tang et al, 2005).…”

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) at High Mountain Site in North China: Concentration, Source and Health Risk Assessment

“…As for the diagnostic ratio of Flu/(Flu + Pyr), a value smaller than 0.4 implied unburned petroleum as the main source of PAH pollutions; the value between 0.4 and 0.5 indicated the sources from liquid fossil fuel; and the value larger than 0.5 suggested the sources might be potentially from wood and coal (Yang et al, 2017). In this study, the ratio of Flu/(Flu + Pyr) in Mount Tai was 0.63 (Table 2), which indicate a significant contribution from coal and wood combustion in this area.…”

Determination of n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hopanes in atmospheric aerosol: evaluation and comparison of thermal desorption GC-MS and solvent extraction GC-MS approaches

“…The conventional approach for molecular analysis of organic compounds often requires the extraction of aerosol collected on filter into solvents followed by evaporation, separation and detection by, e.g., gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) (Kourtchev et al, 2009;Nozière et al, 2015;Maenhaut et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2017). However, the solvent extraction (SE) method is prone to contamination and/or analyte lost during sample pre-treatment and is environmentally unfriendly because of the use of a large amount of solvent (Samy et al, 2010;Giri et al, 2013;Urban et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2017).…”