title: Exposure assessment and distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contained in indoor and outdoor dusts and the impacts of particle size and bioaccessibility.
abstract: The size fraction, bioaccessibility and associated human daily intake of PCBs via indoor and outdoor dust collected from two most populated urban centers of Pearl River Delta (PRD), China, were studied. The ΣPCBs levels (ng g(-1)) in indoor (51.9-264) and outdoor (4.02-228) dust in Guangzhou (GZ) were found higher than those in indoor (17.4-137) and outdoor (7.75-114) dust of Hong Kong (HK). Hexa-PCB was the largest contributor in dust samples (29-64%), followed by tri-PCB. The size fraction of PCBs indicated a high accumulation effect of particles less than 63 μm, while the lowest was found in 280-2000 μm. Toxic equivalency (TEQ) of dioxin-like PCBs in indoor dust of GZ and HK was 2 to 13 times higher than that in outdoor dust. The bioaccessibility of PCBs was determined as 5-61% depending on individual PCB congeners under study and bioaccessible PCB exposure was significantly lower than the estimate for total PCB. The daily intake of bioaccessible PCBs via dust ranged in 0.02-8.95 and 0.37-17.8 ng day(-1) in GZ while 0.01-4.95 and 0.16-9.83 ng day(-1) in HK for adults and children, respectively. Dust ingestion contributed to 0.49-10.6% of overall non-dietary PCB exposure (dust ingestion and inhalation) for adults while 12.9-35% for children, indicating the dominant contribution from inhalation.
authors.affiliation: Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Min-Juan
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jin-Shu
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Kwai Chung
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Ming Hung
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D052638:Particulate Matter; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Bioaccessibility; Carcinogenic hazard (TEQ); Health risk assessment; Indoor and outdoor dust; Particle size fraction; Polychlorinated biphenyl