Abstract

Abstract. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic compounds in the atmosphere and have adverse effects on public health, especially through the inhalation of particulate matter (PM). At present, there is limited understanding of the size distribution of particulate-bound PAHs and their health risks on a continental scale. In this study, we carried out a PM campaign from October 2012 to September 2013 at 12 sampling sites simultaneously, including urban, suburban and remote sites in different regions of China. Size-segregated PAHs and typical tracers of coal combustion (picene), biomass burning (levoglucosan) and vehicle exhaust (hopanes) were measured. The annual averages of the 24 total measured PAHs (∑24PAHs) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) carcinogenic equivalent concentration (BaPeq) ranged from 7.56 to 205 ng/m3 with a mean of 53.5 ng/m3 and from 0.21 to 22.2 ng/m3 with a mean of 5.02 ng/m3, respectively. At all the sites, ∑24PAHs and BaPeq were dominant in the ultrafine particles with aerodynamic diameter < 1.1 µm, followed by those in the size ranges of 1.1–3.3 µm and > 3.3 µm. Compared with southern China, northern China witnessed much higher ∑24PAHs (87.36 vs. 17.56 ng/m3), BaPeq (8.48 vs. 1.34 ng/m3) and PAHs' inhalation cancer risk (7.4 × 10−4 vs. 1.2 × 10−4). Nationwide increases in both PAH levels and inhalation cancer risk occurred in winter. The unfavorable meteorological conditions and enhanced emissions of coal combustion and biomass burning together led to severe PAHs' pollution and high cancer risk in the atmosphere of northern China, especially during winter. Coal combustion is the major source of BaPeq in all size particles at most sampling sites. Our results suggested that the reduction of coal and biofuel consumption in the residential sector could be crucial and effective in lowering PAH concentrations and their inhalation cancer risk in China.

Highlights

  • Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution has adverse effects on public health

  • The methylated aliquot was analyzed for Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and hopanes using a 7890/5975C gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer detector (GC/MSD) in the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode with a 60 m HP-5MS capillary column (0.25 mm, 0.25 μm)

  • In order to assess the carcinogenicity of bulk PAHs, the BaP carcinogenic equivalent concentration (BaPeq) was calculated by multiplying the concentrations of PAH individuals (PAHi) by their toxic equivalency factor (TEFi) as n

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Summary

Introduction

Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution has adverse effects on public health. The global deaths caused by exposure to PM with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) kept increasing from 1990 and reached 4.2 million in 2015 (Cohen et al, 2017). Data on PAHs in the ambient air have accumulated in China during the past decades Among these field studies, most were conducted in rapidly developing economic regions, including the North China region (Huang et al, 2006; Liu et al, 2007; Wang et al, 2011; Lin et al, 2015a; Lin et al, 2015b; Tang et al, 2017; Yu et al, 2018), Yangtze River Delta region (Liu et al, 2001; Zhu et al, 2009; Gu et al, 2010; He et al, 2014) and Pearl River Delta region (Bi et al, 2003; Guo et al, 2003; Li et al, 2006; Tan et al, 2006; Duan et al, 2007; Lang et al, 2007; Yang et al, 2010; Gao et al, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015; Yu et al, 2016), due to large amounts of combustion emission and the high density of population in these regions.

Field sampling
Chemical analysis
Quality control and quality assurance
Exposure assessment
General remarks
High levels of atmospheric PAHs in northern China
Nationwide increase of PAHs’ pollution and health risk during winter

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