title: Risk assessment related to atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in gas and particle phases near industrial sites.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inhalation is one of the main means of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) because of their ubiquitous presence in the atmosphere. However, most studies have considered only PAHs found in the particle phase and have omitted the contribution of the gas-phase PAHs to the risk.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We estimated the lifetime lung cancer risk from PAH exposure by inhalation in people living next to the largest chemical site in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean area.
  
  
  METHODS
  We determined 18 PAHs in the atmospheric gas and particle phase. We monitored the PAHs for 1 year in three locations near the chemical site in different seasons. We used toxic equivalence factors to calculate benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) equivalents (BaP-eq) for individual PAHs and applied the World Health Organization unit risk (UR) for BaP (UR = 8.7 × 10-5) to estimate lifetime cancer risks due to PAH exposures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed some spatial and seasonal variability in PAH concentrations. The contribution of gas-phase PAHs to the total BaP-eq value was between 34% and 86%. The total estimated average lifetime lung cancer risk due to PAH exposure in the study area was 1.2 × 10-4.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The estimated risk was higher than values recommended by the World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but lower than the threshold value of 10-3 that is considered an indication of definite risk according to similar risk studies. The results also showed that risk may be underestimated if the contributions of gas-phase PAHs are not considered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Noelia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cuadras
authors.forename: Enric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rovira
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Marcé
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Borrull
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons