Global Cancer Risk from Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Abstract

including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request.Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of chemicals that contain multiple fused aromatic rings, and are emitted into the atmosphere as byproducts of burning organic matter (Keyte et al., 2013). Several PAHs have been identified as mutagenic or carcinogenic (Bostrom et al., 2002) and therefore have the potential to harm the health of humans (Hansen et al., 2007;Park & Park, 2009) and ecosystems (Gray, 2002). In the atmosphere, PAHs are present as a complex mixture, with different people inhaling different combinations of these carcinogens (Dixon et al., 2019). However, scientific research and environmental guidelines often represent this complex PAH mixture using a single surrogate compound, benzo[a]pyrene (BAP).

NPAHs and OPAHs in the atmosphere of two central European cities: Seasonality, urban-to-background gradients, cancer risks and gas-to-particle partitioning

“…This suggests significant health risk associated with the inhalation of polycyclic aromatic compounds in these two Central European cities. This is consistent with a recent study showing that 70% of the global population breathes air which exceeds the safe threshold level, with higher risks in China, India, Central and Eastern Europe ( Kelly et al, 2021 ). The risks estimated in this study for both PAHs and NOPAHs are somewhat similar to those previously reported in several locations in China ( Bandowe et al, 2014 ; Wei et al, 2015a ), Porto, Florence or Athens ( Alves et al, 2017 ) but higher than those found at Langfang, China ( Zhao et al, 2018 ) or Grenoble, France ( Tomaz et al, 2016 ).…”

“…This is different than what has been found elsewhere (e.g. a higher contribution of NPAHs to the PAC carcinogenicity (3.5%) than to PAC mass (0.7%), Huang et al, 2014a ), and particularly in a recent study at the global level estimating that NPAHs alone contributed to 15–20% of the carcinogenic potential of PAH mixtures ( Kelly et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Moreover, PEF values were available for only 13/28 NOPAHs investigated, particularly limited for OPAHs (Table S6). This ignorance may cause significant underestimation of the toxicity of PACs ( Kelly et al, 2021 ; Samburova et al, 2017 ). Moreover, we used the unit risk factor set by WHO ( WHO, 2000 ) while a different value (i.e.…”

Food-Borne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Circadian Disruption

“…58 The regulations were changed for the following reasons: (1) even if the concentration of B[a]P is low in food, contamination with other PAHs may still be present and (2) B[a]P is a minor contributor to total cancer risk at around 11%. 59 Before introducing PAH2, PAH4, and PAH8 as more accurate markers, it is important to note that according to regulations, smoked molluscs, muscle meat of smoked fish, heat-treated meat products, cocoa butter, and chocolates are food commodities with high potential to be contaminated by B[a]P. The maximum allowable level of B[a]P is 5 μg/kg. Due to the contamination of PAHs in water, direct consumption of aquatic organisms could contribute to the intake of PAHs.…”

Compositional and seasonal differences of gas and particle phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) over the southern Baltic Sea coast

“…The lifetime average daily dose (LADD) and the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) of toxic PAH compounds are common parameters of health risk via the inhalation route proposed by many epidemiologically based models 4,7,[31][32][33][34][35] . In the present study, to calculate the public health risk due to long-term and continuous exposure to carcinogenic PAHs in this study, the following Eqs.…”