Source Identification and Health Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon‐Enriched PM_2.5 in Tangshan, China

Abstract

Tangshan city in Hebei Province is one of the most heavily polluted cities in China, with substantial industrial emissions. The development of effective air pollution emission reduction policies requires knowledge of the sources and health risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-enriched fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). We investigated the seasonal variation and source apportionment of 16 priority PAH-enriched PM 2.5 samples in Tangshan during 2014 and 2015, and we assessed the health risks associated with inhalation exposure to PAHs. The PM 2.5 samples were collected from April 2014 to February 2015. We analyzed the concentrations of PM 2.5 and PAH-enriched PM 2.5 , and used principal component analysis and molecular diagnostic ratios to identify potential sources. We explored the relationship between distribution and meteorological conditions, and used an incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) model to quantitatively evaluate exposure from the inhalation risk of PAHs. The average mass concentration of PM 2.5 was 196 µg/m 3 , with a range 34.0 to 586 µg/m 3 . The median ∑ 16 PAH values in PM 2.5 were 190 ng/m 3 , with a range of 60.2 to 862 ng/m 3 over the sampling period. The order of ∑ 16 PAHs concentration was winter > autumn > summer > spring. The results show that the primary sources of PAH-enriched PM 2.5 are coal combustion, vehicle exhaust, and biomass burning. The annual mean of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) was 8.37 ng/m 3 , more than 8-fold greater than the BaP annual standard (1 ng/m 3 ) set by the Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency. The ILCR values for 3 groups (children, teenagers, and adults) over the 4 seasons were between 10 -6 and 10 -4 , indicating a potential health risk from PAHs in Tangshan. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:458-467. © 2019 SETAC

Seasonal variation, sources, and risk assessment of PM2.5-bound PAHs in Nantong, China: A pre- and post-COVID-19 case study

“…Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a significant class of toxic organic pollutants in the atmosphere (Masih et al, 2014;Tchórzewska-Cieślaka et al, 2017), are extremely easily adsorbed on fine atmospheric particles with small particle sizes and are found in high concentrations in the atmosphere (Ma et al, 2019), water (Fehmi et al, 2015), soil (Niu et al, 2020), crops (Oleszczuk and Baran, 2005), and food (Vichi et al, 2007), where they exhibit persistence, toxicity, and bioaccumulation. Since organic pollutants such as PAHs are associated with PM 2.5 in the air, their adverse effects on human health cannot be ignored, and they represent a significant health burden for Chinese citizens (Xu et al, 2015;Ying et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019).…”

A New Method for the Assessment of the Oxidative Potential of Both Water-Soluble and Insoluble PM

“…Air pollution is widely recognized as a key topic in public health protection actions [1,2]. Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is one of the major global health concerns [3,4], since it may adversely affect human health, leading to the development of several chronic and acute pathologies, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, lung cancer, bronchitis, diabetes, and neurodevelopmental disorders [5][6][7][8]. A growing number of epidemiological studies reported associations of PM pollution with health effects also at low levels, often below current air quality standards [9,10].…”