Characterization of particulate-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace metals composition of urban air in Delhi, India

A comparison study of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in three Indian cities using PUF disk passive air samplers

“…However, previous studies have mainly focused on particle-associated PAHs (Karar and Gupta, 2006;Mohanraj et al, 2010Mohanraj et al, , 2011, and limited work has been carried out on both gaseous and particulate phase PAHs in India (Sahu et al, 2004;Pandit et al, 2006). In addition, previously measured local PAH concentrations ranged from several ng m À3 (Pandit et al, 2006) to several ug m À3 (Singh et al, 2011), making assessment on a regional scale difficult.…”

“…Traditional biomass resources are still used to meet the overwhelming proportion of India's energy demand (Masih et al, 2012), which could lead to a significant amount of PAH release. Some reports have indicated that atmospheric PAH levels in Indian cities are higher than in other urban sites around the world (Sharma et al, 2007;Singh et al, 2011). Hence, a large portion of the world's population is exposed to high levels of PAHs (Simth et al, 2004).…”

The Variations of Concentrations, Profiles and Possible Sources of Metals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in PM10 from Lanzhou, China

“…The method detection limit was 1.00-6.00 ng/cm 3 . For data reduction purposes, masses calculated from areas below the limit of detection were equated to zero.…”

“…In this study, the concentrations of metals bound to PM 2.5 in Lanzhou were higher than those in the U.S., and among them the concentrations of Pb, Zn, and Ni were lower than those in other domestic cities (such as Guiyu, Chengdu, Beijing, and Taiwan), while Cu was 1-27 times higher than in Taiwan, Chengdu, and Lijiang [8,11,12]. In PM 10 , the concentrations of metals were lower than in Delhi, India; 10 times higher than that in Spata, Koropi, and Thessaloniki, Greece; 1-18 times higher than that in ceramic factories, Cantabria Regio, and Barcelona in Spain; and 8-100 times higher than that in Helsinki, Finland [3,[13][14][15][16][17]. The concentrations of PAHs were higher than those in Baoji and Changsha, China; Mexico and Chiang Mai, Thailand; Candiota, Brazil; Naples; Seoul; and Delhi [3,6,11,18].…”

“…Atmospheric levels of PM 10 and PM 2.5 are monitoring indicators in the latest ambient air quality standards in China, while the toxic chemical compounds absorbed onto the particles were not used as factors. Actually these compounds, including metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have become a major research issue, have the more serious health risk [3]. Widespread metals pollution causes serious risks to human health, and has brought adverse health effects to kidneys, livers, and nervous system from metals exposure [4,5].…”