Contamination, Sources, and Health Risks Associated with Soil PAHs in Rebuilt Land from a Coking Plant, Beijing, China

Abstract

This study investigated the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution in the reconstructed land of an abandoned industrial site: a coking plant in Beijing. To meet the needs of urban development, many factories have had to be relocated from city centers, and abandoned industrial sites often need to be transformed into residential land or urban green space through a series of restoration measures. It is necessary to study the level of residual pollutants and potential risks associated with industrial reconstructed land. The concentration of 16 PAHs in the study area ranged from 314.7 to 1618.3 µg/kg, and the average concentration was still at a medium pollution level; the concentration of PAHs in the original coking workshop had the highest levels (1350.5 µg/kg). The PAHs in the soil were mainly low-ring aromatics, especially naphthalene and phenanthrene. The isomer method and principal component analysis indicated that PAHs in the topsoil were the result of coal and biomass combustion. The seven carcinogenic PAHs were the main contributors to the total toxicity equivalence. The genetic toxicity of benzo[a]pyrene was relatively low, and the results were related to the concentration level. There were potential carcinogenic risks for people of varying ages in this residential area. In total, gender differences were small, and the comprehensive lifetime cancer risk level was still acceptable. For the remaining plots at the study site, the daily intake of PAHs by construction workers was between 0.74–2.31 ng/kg bw/day, which requires further evaluation about ignored area occupational exposure to environmental pollutants.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban and rural residential soils, levels, composition profiles, source identification and health risk & hazard

“…The observed ILCR for humans due to PAHs during this study were comparable with ILCR reported for various Indian locations like Dhanbad (adults, 6.93 × 10 −5 , children,6.22 × 10 −5 ; adults, 1.82 × 10 −5 , children, 1.85 × 10 −5 ; adults, 3.36 × 10 −6 -7.53 × 10 −6 , children 2.65 × 10 −6 -8.19 × 10 −6 ) [ [14][15][16], Ghaziabad (adults 7.7 × 10 −5 , children 4.5 × 10 −5 ) [18], Gwalior (adults, 6.4 × 10 −5 , children, 2.4 × 10 −4 ) [19], Korba (adults, 6.7 × 10 −5 , children, 3.5 × 10 −5 ) [58] and Kurukshetra (adults, 8.1 × 10 −6 , children, 4.2 × 10 −5 ) [59]. ILCR was also comparable with reported for cities of other countries including Beijing, China (adults, 2.48 × 10 −6 -3.08 × 10 −6 , children, 1.56 × 10 −6 -2.69 × 10 −6 ) [35], and USA (6 × 10 −5 ) [60]. But was less than Mashad, Iran (adults, 6.2 × 10 −4 , children, 7 × 10 −4 ) [8], Kutahya, Turkey (adults, 5.71 × 10 −6 to 3.19 × 10 −4 ) [12], Guatemala (adults, 1.61 × 10 −4 ) [13], and higher than Yinma (children, 1.00 × 10 −6 to 1.18 × 10 −6 , adults, 1.10 × 10 −6 to 4.22 × 10 −6 ) [6], Liaohe (children, 4.03 × 10 −8 , adults, 1.14 × 10 −7 ) [7], Wuhan (adults 1.13 × 10 −8 to 3.54 × 10 −8 , children 9.23 × 10 −7 to 9.51 × 10 −6 ) [9], Gwangju in South Korea (adults, 8.41 × 10 −6 , children, 3.61 × 10 −7 ) [10], and North-West China (adults, 1.19 × 10 −9 Children, 1.79 × 10 −9 ) [11].…”

“…Recently, elevated concentrations of seven PAHs (∑ of NPT, FLE, PHE, ANT, FLT, PYR & BaP) (956-2714 μg kg −1 ) were reported in soils from power station area, interstate bus terminals and heavy traffic intersections in Delhi [34]. On comparison with similar studies from other countries, the observed concentrations were much less than concentrations reported for Beijing (736 ± 894 μg/kg) [35], Orlando (3227 ± 4676 μg/kg) and Thampa (4562 ± 10,031 μg/ kg) Florida in USA [36], Shengli (2160 μg/kg) [37], Xian (2053 μg/kg) [38], Shandong (3016 μg/kg) [39], Nanjing (980 μg/kg) [40], Ulsan (810 μg/kg) and Pohang (2384 μg/ kg) [41], Kathmandu (1172 μg/kg) [42], Cape Town (4080 ± 2640 μg/kg) [43], and San Mateo Ixtatán (1401 μg/ kg) [13]. But, PAHs concentrations in our study were above than those reported from Gwangju (51.2 μg/kg) [10] and Gyeonggi (253 μg/kg) [41].…”

Distribution, Origins and Hazardous Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Topsoil Surrounding Oil Fields: A Case Study on the Loess Plateau, China

“…SA corresponds to the surface area of dermal exposure (cm 2 day −1 ), the dermal adherence factor is referred to AF (mg cm −2 ), AT denotes the average life span (day), ABS is the dermal adsorption factor, and PEF corresponds to the particle emission factor (m 3 kg −1 ). People were divided in terms of age and gender in six groups, such as: [19]. The corresponding parameter values are given in Supplementary Table S4.…”

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Different Layers of Soil and Groundwater - Evaluation of Levels of Pollution and Sources of Contamination

“…The most important and valuable aspect of this study is that soil samples have been taken from different layers, up to 4 m in depth, while in other studies, the greatest sampling depths were up to 20 cm [28], 40 cm [6], 50 cm [3] and 100 cm [22].…”