Abstract
Abstract. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic pollutants in fine particulate matter (PM) long known to have mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, but much is unknown about the importance of local and remote sources for PAH levels observed in population-dense urban environments. A year-long sampling campaign in Athens, Greece, where more than 150 samples were analyzed for 31 PAHs and a wide range of chemical markers, was combined with positive matrix factorization (PMF) to constrain the temporal variability, sources, and carcinogenic risk associated with PAHs. It was found that biomass burning (BB), a source mostly present during wintertime intense pollution events (observed for 18 % of measurement days in 2017), led to wintertime PAH levels that were 7 times higher than in other seasons and was as important for annual mean PAH concentrations (31 %) as diesel and oil (33 %) and gasoline (29 %) sources. The contribution of non-local sources, although limited on an annual basis (7 %), increased during summer, becoming comparable to that of local sources combined. The fraction of PAHs (12 members that were included in the PMF analysis) that was associated with BB was also linked to increased health risk compared to the other sources, accounting for almost half the annual PAH carcinogenic potential (43 %). This can result in a large number of excess cancer cases due to BB-related high PM levels and urges immediate action to reduce residential BB emissions in urban areas facing similar issues.
Highlights
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are abundant in the atmosphere and can be present in the gas or particle phase (Finlayson-Pitts, 1997; Lin et al, 2015)
These results can be placed in context by comparison against past studies for PAHs in the GAA (Table S3 in the Supplement) that identified similar seasonal profiles, not with such pronounced winter-summer differences
It is noteworthy that the present, urban background, BaP annual mean concentration is comparable to the mean BaP concentrations reported at 21 sites in the GAA by a study of annual duration in 2010–2011, 7 of which were high-traffic locations
Summary
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are abundant in the atmosphere and can be present in the gas or particle phase (Finlayson-Pitts, 1997; Lin et al, 2015). Ambient PAHs originate mainly from internal combustion engines, stationary sources such as power and industrial plants, residential heating (including biomass burning), cooking, and wildfires (Finlayson-Pitts, 1997; Simoneit, 2002; Bond et al, 2013). Several PAHs are characterized as potential carcinogens and/or mutagens (IARC, 2010; Nowakowski et al, 2017). The European Union has set an air quality standard for the carcinogenic risk of PAHs with the directive 2004/107/EC. While the directive highlights the necessity of measurement for several PAHs (at least six other members), Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union
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