Particle-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospheric environment of Zonguldak, Turkey

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmospheric PM2.5 and PM10 at a coal-based industrial city: Implication for PAH control at industrial agglomeration regions, China

“…BaPeq concentration for each PAHs is calculated by multiplying its concentration with the corresponding toxic equivalent factor (TEF) which represents the relative carcinogenic potency of the corresponding PAHs suggested by Nisbet and LaGoy's TEFs which have been widely used (Nielsen et al, 1996;Chang et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2006;Hong et al, 2007;Akyüz and Çabuk, 2008). The carcinogenic potency of total PAHs can be assessed by the sum of the BaPeq concentrations of each PAHs.…”

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Associated with PM2.5 in Guadalajara, Mexico: Environmental Levels, Health Risks and Possible Sources

“…In order to assess the carcinogenic potency for humans, the benzo(a)pyrene-equivalent (BaPE) carcinogenicity was calculated by multiplying the concentrations of each PAH species with their corresponding toxic equivalent factors (TEF); thus, atmospheric concentration of Acn, Phe, Pyr, Flt were each multiplied by 0.001, while Ant, Chry and BghiP by 0.01, BaA, BbF, BkF and IcdP by 0.1 and BaP by 1 [13,35]. The mean of the summed BaPE for the whole sampling period was 0.79 ± 0.72 ng·m −3 and ranged between 0.01 ng·m −3 and 2.52 ng·m −3 .…”

“…It has been shown by several ambient studies of urban districts, suburban sites and rural sites around the world that profile and individual PAHs can be used as tracers to distinguish among their diverse sources [13,24,27,29,[41][42][43]. They have been associated with several kinds of sources like biomass burning [26], coal combustion [44], coal processing industries [45] and vehicle emissions [27,46].…”

“…They are also mutagenic and can undergo atmospheric photochemical reaction in the gas phase and on particle surfaces [11,12] and can be photo-chemically transformed into highly toxic compounds such as nitrated (nitro-PAHs) and oxygenated PAHs (oxy-PAHs). They can be emitted from the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials and are mostly from anthropogenic sources in urban environments such as coal combustion and vehicular emissions [13]. Furthermore, they are predominantly associated with particles of smaller sizes [14].…”

Inhalation and dermal exposure to atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and associated carcinogenic risks in a relatively small city

“…To date, information on PAH air pollution in Turkey is limited. In the limited number of studies that exist, high atmospheric PAH concentrations have been measured in several locations such as Bursa (Esen et al, 2006;Birgul et al, 2011), Eskisehir (Ari, 2008), Istanbul (Hanedar et al, 2011), Izmir (Demircioglu et al, 2011), and Konya (Ozcan and Aydin, 2009) which are large cities, smallest of which with a metropolitan population of 630,000 (TUIK, 2010); Aliaga (Bozlaker et al, 2008;Kaya et al, 2012) and Iskenderun (Ozgunerge Falay et al, 2013) which are locations of intense industrial activity; Kocaeli (Gaga et al, 2012) a large city with intense industrial activity; and Zonguldak (Akyuz and Cabuk, 2008), a relatively small city with a population of about 109,000 (TUIK, 2010) but that has intense coal mining activity and iron-steel industry about 15 km far away. Nevertheless, only one study conducted an exposure-risk assessment (Gaga et al, 2012), which estimated 41.0 Â 10 À 3 total cancer risk levels using the unit risk approach.…”