Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions from the combustion of household solid coal for cooking and heating cause great harm to public health in China, especially in less developed areas. Children are one of the most susceptible population groups at risk of indoor air pollutants due to their immature respiratory and immune systems. However, information on PAH exposure of children is limited due to limited monitoring data. In this study, we aimed to assess the seasonal differences of PAHs in classrooms, analyze the pollutant sources, and calculate the incremental lifetime cancer risk attributable to PAHs in Shanxi Provence. A typical school using household coal combustion in Shanxi Province was selected. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)samples were collected by both individual samplers and fixed middle-flow samplers during the heating and non-heating seasons in December 2018 and April 2019. The PAH concentrations in PM2.5 samples were analyzed by a gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer. The results showed that PAH concentrations in PM2.5 varied between 89.1 ng/m3 in the heating season and 1.75 ng/m3 in the non-heating season. The mean concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a carcinogenic marker of PAHs, were 10.3 and 0.05 ng/m3 in the heating and non-heating seasons, respectively. Source allocation analysis of individual portable and passive samplers revealed that the main contributors during heating and non-heating seasons were coal combustion and gasoline sources, respectively. According to the results of a Monte Carlo simulation, the incremental lifetime cancer risk values from the inhalation of PAHs in the heating and non-heating seasons were 3.1 × 10−6 and 5.7 × 10−8, respectively. The significant increase in PAHs and the incremental lifetime cancer risk in the heating season indicates that children are more exposed to health threats in winter. Further PAH exposure control strategies, including reducing coal usage and promoting clean fuel applications, need to be developed to reduce the risk of PAH-induced cancer.
Highlights
China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world [1]
The total concentration of individual Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) was of the same order of magnitude as the personal sampling level in Tianjin in summer, with an average value of 27.3 ng/m3 [29]
A previous study demonstrated a personal exposure of 3.69 ng/m3 from 21 samples of PAHs collected in the winter, a result lower than the exposure concentration in our current study [33]
Summary
China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world [1]. According to the National. Children are exposed in school classrooms for 175–250 days per year around the world [7] Due to their physiological and activity levels, the number of alveoli in the lungs of children gradually increases, and the alveolar area is significantly larger than that of adults; the inspiratory volume of children is significantly higher than that of adults [8]. A previous study in Shanxi Province demonstrated that the indoor benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) concentration in rural areas in the heating season in 2015 was 80.7 ng/m3 [26], which greatly exceeded the national ambient PAH standard of 1 ng/m3 of BaP. (2) evaluate the different sources of PAHs in heating and non-heating seasons, and (3) assess the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for children due to PAH inhalation
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