Particle associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospheric environment of urban and suburban residential area

Abstract

Ten polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with suspended particulate matter in the ambient air were collected at two sampling sites: urban and suburban residential areas of Yokohama, Japan from 1999 to 2005. The concentrations of target compounds were determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The total concentrations were higher in urban residential area than suburban residential area. They ranged from 0.31 to 6.16 ng/m3 with a mean of 2.07 ng/m3 and 0.33 to 2.87 ng/m3 with a mean of 1.02 ng/m3 in the urban and suburban residential areas, respectively. The predominant compounds determined both in the urban and suburban residential areas were benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and benzo[e]pyrene. The concentrations of 5-and 6-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were higher in the urban than the suburban residential area, accounting for 77.3 % and 72.1 % of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, respectively. Source identification was performed by principal component analysis. Two principal components were identified for each study area and these accounted for 95.9 % and 83.3 % of total variance, respectively. The results revealed that stationary source and vehicle emissions were the major pollution sources in the studied areas. The impact of emission regulations for automobiles in large Japanese cities, which were enacted during 2002 and 2003, was also studied. Based on the average total concentration, emission reduction was 47.8 % and 18.6 % in urban residential and suburban residential areas, respectively.

Levels, potential sources and human health risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in particulate matter (PM10) in Kumasi, Ghana

“…From the 21 PAHs analyzed, the more volatile compounds (Nap, Acl, Ace and Fle) were not discussed at each sampling location because these lower ring molecules are present in the gas phase, especially at high ambient temperatures (20-38 0 C), which was observed throughout the sampling period. Moreover, their (Nap, Acl, Ace and Fle) concentrations were either undetected or low, which was also observed in studies by Oanh et al (2000) and Salam et al (2011).…”

Analysis and monitoring of odour and semi-volatile organic compounds in different environmental matrices via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

“…The more volatile and lighter PAHs (NAPH, ACY, ACP and FLR) were not detected because they mostly occur in the gas phase due to their high vapor pressures, especially at the relatively high ambient temperatures at the equator, which are observed throughout the year. This has also been reported in other studies in the region [57,81,97,[121][122][123]. Singapore was influenced by long-distance pyrogenic, biomass combustion processes occurring at that time in Indonesia (forest and peat fires).…”

Sources and history of PAHs in lake sediments from oil-producing and industrial areas, northeast China

“…Among the contaminants, PAHs are the dominant one found in petroleum manufacturing process that may be released during drilling, transportation, and extraction processes of crude and refined oil (Sun et al 2011;Froehner et al 2012a, b;Inengite et al 2013). Due to their toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic characteristics (Salam et al 2011;Froehner et al 2012a, b;Liu et al 2012), released petroleum may pose a risk to the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including human health (Rao et al 2008;Kumar and Kothiyal 2011). In general, PAHs as a large group of hazardous substances can originate via natural, domestic, and industrial activities including natural fires, plant emissions, combustion of fossil fuels, incomplete combustion of organic matter, and vehicle exhausts (Countway et al 2003;Hu et al 2010;Zhao et al 2012a, b).…”