Health Risk of Ambient PM10-bound PAHs at Bus Stops in Spring and Autumn in Tianjin, China

Taosheng Jin; Miao Han; Kun Han; Xuemei Fu; Limin Xu; Xiaohong Xu

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2017.11.0461

Health Risk of Ambient PM10-bound PAHs at Bus Stops in Spring and Autumn in Tianjin, China

Taosheng Jin This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.¹, Miao Han¹, Kun Han¹, Xuemei Fu¹, Limin Xu¹, Xiaohong Xu²

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¹State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, Nankai University, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300071, China
²Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada

Received: November 28, 2017
Revised: February 6, 2018
Accepted: February 8, 2018

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2017.11.0461

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Cite this article:

Jin, T., Han, M., Han, K., Fu, X., Xu, L. and Xu, X. (2018). Health Risk of Ambient PM10-bound PAHs at Bus Stops in Spring and Autumn in Tianjin, China. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 18: 1828-1838. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2017.11.0461

HIGHLIGHTS

Spring/Autumn (Mar/Sep) ratio of PAHs concentrations at bus stops was 2.
Life time carcinogenic risk exposed to ambient PAHs at bus stops were lower than 10^–7.
The positive correlations among PAH species at each site suggest common sources.

ABSTRACT

A study was conducted to measure ambient concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM₁₀-bound PAHs to estimate health risks due to exposure to PAHs during wait times at bus stops in September 2012 and March 2014. Samples were collected by personal exposure monitors at Balitai and Haiguangsi bus stops in Tianjin, China. The equivalent concentration of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP_eq) was used to estimate the health risks of PAHs in PM₁₀ inhaled by passengers waiting at these bus stops. The results showed the average PM₁₀ level was higher in autumn (non-heating season) compared to spring (heating season) (307 ± 67 µg m^–3 vs. 226 ± 100 µg m^–3). When averaged over the two bus stops, concentrations of total PAHs in PM₁₀ were much higher during spring compared to autumn (417 vs. 193 ng m^–3), while BaP_eq was slightly lower during spring (29.7 vs. 32.8 ng m^–3). The incremental lifetime cancer risks (ILCR) at the two bus stops, Balitai and Haiguangsi, in spring were 9.0 × 10^–8 and 4.5 × 10^–8, and in autumn were 1.1 × 10^–7 and 7.7 × 10^–8, respectively. All these risk values were lower than the acceptable risk range of 10^–6–10^–4 approved by US Environmental Protection Agency.