title: Quantification of PAHs and health risk via ingestion of vegetable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.
abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate the concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the soil and vegetable irrigated with wastewater in 11 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province (Pakistan). The ∑16PAH ranged from 223 to 929 μg/kg in the soils with highest concentration in the soil of high urbanized district (Peshawar), while the lowest concentration in the soil of less urbanized district (Lakki Marwat). PAH concentrations in vegetable ranged from 51.6 to 402 μg/kg on dry weight bases (d.w). Naphthaene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene were frequently observed in vegetable. The concentrations of higher molecular weight PAHs were lower in vegetable as compared to low molecular weight PAHs. The highest PAH concentrations were observed in leafy vegetable (lettuce>spinach). The highest TEQ value (7.2) was observed for pyrene following by naphthalene (4.9) for the samples collected from Mardan, while the lowest mean TEQ value (0.12) was found for acenaphthylene followed by benzo[k]fluoranthene (0.26) in Peshawar. The highest TEQ value was 4.1 for flouranthene followed by 3.8 for naphthalene in the KPK province. The uniqueness of this study is the quantification of PAHs in the soil and vegetable collected from a large area of KPK Province which are rapidly urbanizing.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China; Department of Environmental Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Waqas
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China; Department of Environmental Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Electronic address: sardar.khan2008@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Sardar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Isha
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shamshad
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Zahir
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qamar
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Kifayatullah
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D014675:Vegetables / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants
keywords: Accumulation; Daily intake; Health risk; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Vegetable; Wastewater irrigation