title: Evaluation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using analytical methods, toxicology, and risk assessment research: seafood safety after a petroleum spill as an example.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are abundant and widespread environmental chemicals. They are produced naturally and through man-made processes, and they are common in organic media, including petroleum. Several PAHs are toxic, and a subset exhibit carcinogenic activity. PAHs represent a range of chemical structures based on two or more benzene rings and, depending on their source, can exhibit a variety of side modifications resulting from oxygenation, nitrogenation, and alkylation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Here we discuss the increasing ability of contemporary analytical methods to distinguish not only different chemical structures among PAHs but also their concentrations in environmental media. Using seafood contamination following the Deepwater Horizon accident as an example, we identify issues that are emerging in the PAH risk assessment process because of increasing analytical sensitivity for individual PAHs, and we describe the paucity of toxicological literature for many of these compounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PAHs, including the large variety of chemically modified or substituted PAHs, are naturally occurring and may constitute health risks if human populations are exposed to hazardous levels. However, toxicity evaluations have not kept pace with modern analytic methods and their increased ability to detect substituted PAHs. Therefore, although it is possible to measure these compounds in seafood and other media, we do not have sufficient information on the potential toxicity of these compounds to incorporate them into human health risk assessments and characterizations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Future research efforts should strategically attempt to fill this toxicological knowledge gap so human health risk assessments of PAHs in environmental media or food can be better determined. This is especially important in the aftermath of petroleum spills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wickliffe
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Overton
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frickel
authors.forename: Jessi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Echsner
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gauthe
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Cornelis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Elferink
authors.forename: Shakeel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.forename: Harshica
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fernando
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trapido
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kane
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons