Occurrence and Ecological and Human Health Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soils from Wuhan, Central China.

Tekleweini Gereslassie,Xiaoning Liu,Xue Yan,Ababo Workineh,Jun Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph15122751

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are large groups of ubiquitous environmental pollutants composed of two or more fused aromatic rings. This study was designed to evaluate the distribution, potential sources, and ecological and cancer risks of eleven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from Huangpi soils in Wuhan, central China. The soil samples for this study were taken from 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths. A modified matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction method was applied to extract analytes from the soil samples. A gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector was used to determine the concentrations of the compounds. The sum mean concentrations of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were 138.93 and 154.99 µg kg−1 in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively. Benzo[a]pyrene and fluorene were the most abundant compounds in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively. The quantitative values of the pyrogenic index, total index, and diagnostic ratio used in this study showed that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have a pyrogenic origin. The negligible and maximum permissible concentrations values for naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, and benzo[a]pyrene indicated a moderate ecological risk. The incremental lifetime cancer risk values for adults and children showed a low and moderate cancer risk, respectively.

Highlights

IntroductionEnvironmental pollution has become a crosscutting issue attracting the attention of countries’governmental, public, and scientific communities in the last few decades [1,2]
Environmental pollution has become a crosscutting issue attracting the attention of countries’governmental, public, and scientific communities in the last few decades [1,2]
The collected samples belong to four different land-use types, namely: barren (BL), farmland (FL), plastic greenhouse (PGH), and paddy field (PF), sampled at the depths of 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm using a precleaned stainless steel grab sampler

Summary

Introduction

Environmental pollution has become a crosscutting issue attracting the attention of countries’governmental, public, and scientific communities in the last few decades [1,2]. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of abundant, widespread hydrophobic environmental pollutants with two or more fused aromatic rings [3,4]. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are characterized by high lipid solubility, facile bioaccumulation, environmental toxicity, and persistent nature, with high melting and boiling points and low vapor pressure [5,6]. They are environmentally ubiquitous compounds found in measurable concentrations in different environmental components (water, soil, and sediments) [7]. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can be produced from natural

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Conclusion