Exposure risk to carcinogenic PAHs in indoor-air during biomass combustion whilst cooking in rural India

Characterization and Determination of PM2.5 Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHS) in Indoor and Outdoor Air in Western Sierra Leone

“…Recovery analysis was done by reconstituting and taking three PAHs surrogates namely: benzo(a)pyrene-d 12 phenanthrene-d 10 , pyrene-d 10 through the extraction process to examine method performance. The recoveries ranged between 83% and 97% largely in agreement with the wider literature [23,27]. The concentration of each PAH was calculated from peak areas by comparison with the calibration standard peak area.…”

“…The chemical composition of PAHs on PM 2.5 could explain the carcinogenic activity of this size fraction [45,46], and a greater part of the anthropogenic combustion related PAHs are responsible for the known hazardous hydrocarbons [47]. Chronic daily exposure to carcinogenic PAHs could impact several disease conditions as previously explained [23], given that samples were collected in the breathing zone.…”

“…Several studies have reported concentrations of PAHs in the combustion zone (the kitchen) where the levels are known to be highest [18,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] but one that characterize PAHs in the kitchen, outdoor and living room in such an overriding condition in a typical developing country has not been reported to our knowledge. The present report was part of a broader study that investigated the prevalence of acute respiratory infections in women and children potentially caused by smoke from wood and charcoal stoves in Western Sierra Leone [29].…”

Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure in pregnant women in Trujillo, Peru — Comparison of different fuel types used for cooking

“…Despite the high prevalence of indoor/residential combustion of biomass for cooking and heating in developing countries where inefficient stoves are often used, there is limited information about exposure to PAHs in these conditions. A few studies have characterized the risk of exposure to PAHs due to residential combustion of different biomass fuels by measuring PAH levels at breathing zone height in cooking environments (Bhargava et al, 2004;Hamada et al, 1991;Oanh and Dungs, 1999;Pandit et al, 2001) and under experimental conditions (Oanh et al, 2002) and report that various PAHs are elevated during the combustion of wood, kerosene, cow dung and coal briquette. Results of biomarker studies have shown that people exposed to smoke from biomass combustion have elevated levels of hydroxy-substituted PAHs in urine (Cavanagh et al, 2007;Kato et al, 2004;Li et al, 2011;Riojas-Rodriguez et al, 2011;Viau et al, 2000), and receive a significant PAH exposure from biomass smoke RiojasRodriguez et al, 2011).…”

“…Smoke generated by the combustion of wood and other biomass fuels contains many health damaging pollutants including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, aldehydes, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (Joshi et al, 1989;Naeher et al, 2007;Venkataraman et al, 2002;Zelikoff et al, 2002;Zhang and Smith, 2007). Household biomass fuel combustion compared to the use of cleaner fuels such as gas could contribute significantly more to indoor levels of these pollutants, including PAHs (Bhargava et al, 2004;Hamada et al, 1991;Oanh and Dungs, 1999;Viau et al, 2000). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies some of the individual PAHs as Class II carcinogens, and identifies benzo(a)pyrene as a Class I carcinogen (IARC, 2010;Straif et al, 2005).…”