Investigation into atmospheric PM_2.5-borne PAHs in Eastern cities of China: concentration, source diagnosis and health risk assessment

Abstract

This study investigated PM2.5-PAHs associations collected in Beijing, Jinan, and Shanghai in Eastern China. The results indicated that PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing, Jinan, and Shanghai were 125.7 μg m(-3) (18.6-355.5 μg m(-3)), 115.9 μg m(-3) (44.2-345.4 μg m(-3)), and 85.1 μg m(-3) (24.3-232.8 μg m(-3)), respectively. The PAH concentrations in terms of PM2.5 in Beijing, Jinan, and Shanghai ranged from 23.2 to 819.8 ng m(-3), 25.7 to 727.1 ng m(-3), and 8.5 to 133.9 ng m(-3), respectively. PAH concentrations were found to be positively correlated with PM2.5 concentration in Beijing and Shanghai. The compositions of PAHs in PM2.5 in Beijing and Jinan were almost the same: 11% low ring, 80-82% middle ring, and 7-9% high ring. However, Shanghai had a different composition. Source apportionment indicated that the incomplete combustion of coal and diesel and gasoline emissions were the main sources of PAHs in PM2.5 in all three cities, whereas Shanghai had a greater contribution from liquid fossil fuels. The values for the health risk assessment estimated by the benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentration in Beijing and Jinan were 2.39 × 10(-6) and 2.57 × 10(-6), respectively, thus both exceeding the 1 × 10(-6) limit (USEPA) considered likely to pose an inhalation cancer risk to people. Shanghai, however, had a risk estimate of 5.05 × 10(-7), which is still in a safe range. This study is the first to simultaneously monitor the PAHs in PM2.5 in three cities in Eastern China and may point to a long-range transportation of PM2.5-PAHs from Beijing to Jinan and partially to Shanghai.

PM2.5-Bound PAHs in Indoor and Outdoor of Hotels in Urban and Suburban of Jinan, China: Concentrations, Sources, and Health Risk Impacts

“…The presence of these compounds in atmospheric particulate matter, as characterized by Factor 2, might be explained by the motor vehicle emissions with unburned diesel fuel and gasoline. These findings were supported by Li et al (2016b), who reported that oil and coal combustion and diesel and gasoline emissions were the main sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in eastern China.…”

“…Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to analyze the independent source tracers (Li et al, 2006;Hong et al, 2007;Li et al, 2016b) for 19 PAHs, and the factors are listed in Table 2. Two factors accounted for 93.5% of the total variance of the data.…”

Health risks of PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and heavy metals (PPAH&HM) during the replacement of central heating with urban natural gas in Tianjin, China

“…The concentrations of 12 kinds of PAHs during the heating period from the coal-burning period to the gas-burning period Through the UNGHP, the average concentrations of PM 2.5 -bound As and Mn in the rural area during the gas-burning period were reduced to 8.29 and 39.57 ng/ m 3 , which were even lower than those of Chengdu (As: 40.5 ng/m 3 ; Mn: 137.6 ng/m 3 ) and Shanghai (Mn: 132 ng/m 3 ) where the coal burning was the main heating source at that time (Li et al, 2016a(Li et al, , 2016bWang et al, 2013). However, the annual average concentrations of As and Mn in Seoul of Korea in 2005 were 1.5 and 10.4 ng/m 3 , which were lower than the results of this study (Park et al, 2008).…”

“…It indicated that only Mn in the urban area during the gas-burning period could lead to the noncarcinogenic effect. The HQ of the PM 2.5 -bound Mn was 3.06 in Chengdu in 2009, so people in Tianjin suffered the less harm from Mn through the UNGHP (Li et al, 2016a(Li et al, , 2016b. In this study, the lifetime cancer risk of Ni fell from 1.65 9 10 -6 in the coalburning period to 0.92 9 10 -6 in the gas-burning period in the rural area, which was lower than the limit of 1.1 9 10 -6 , suggesting no potential carcinogenic risk of Ni in the rural area after implementing the UNGHP (Lin et al, 2016).…”

“…PAHs had been widely accepted as the carcinogenic and mutagenic organic pollutants and could be suspended in the air for a long time (Chang et al, 2019). They were semivolatile compounds and emitted from industrial, agricultural and natural sources (Li et al, 2016a(Li et al, , 2016b. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested 16 kinds of PAHs which should be considered as the priority pollutants (USEPA, 1986).…”