Indoor Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentration in Central India

Abstract

The indoor burning of different materials like fuels, incense, mosquito coil, candles etc. results in generation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an uncontrolled manner. The PAH, i.e., Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is considered as most toxic or carcinogenic and the toxicity of other PAHs is related to this compound. Therefore, the concentration and emission fluxes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emitted during burning of commonly used indoor materials, i.e., 15 fuels (i.e., biomass (BM), coal (C), cow dung (CD), kerosene (K)), 4 incense (IS) and mosquito coil (MC) in Raipur district, Chhattisgarh, central India is described. The samples were taken in September 2013 in indoor environments and respective smoke emitted were collected using high volume United State of America (USA) air sampler on quartz fiber filters. The concentration of total 13 PAHs (∑PAH13) (i.e., phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)-pyrene, dibenz(ah)anthracene, benzo(ghi) perylene, indeno1,2,3-(cd)pyrene, and coronene) in particulate matter (PM10) in the indoor air during burning of the fuels, IS and MC materials ranged from 367–92052 ng m−3, 4089–14047 ng m−3, and 66–103 ng m−3 with mean values of 7767 ± 11809 ng m−3, 9977 ± 4137 ng m−3, and 74 ± 20 ng m−3, respectively. The mean concentration of the ∑PAH13 present in indoor environment is much higher than the WHO limit value of 1.0 ng m−3. The sources and toxicities of PAHs are discussed.