title: Assessing the inhalation cancer risk of particulate matter bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for the elderly in a retirement community of a mega city in North China.
abstract: Assessment of the health risks resulting from exposure to ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is limited by the lack of environmental exposure data among different subpopulations. To assess the exposure cancer risk of particulate carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollution for the elderly, this study conducted a personal exposure measurement campaign for particulate PAHs in a community of Tianjin, a city in northern China. Personal exposure samples were collected from the elderly in non-heating (August-September, 2009) and heating periods (November-December, 2009), and 12 PAHs individuals were analyzed for risk estimation. Questionnaire and time-activity log were also recorded for each person. The probabilistic risk assessment model was integrated with Toxic Equivalent Factors (TEFs). Considering that the estimation of the applied dose for a given air pollutant is dependent on the inhalation rate, the inhalation rate from both EPA exposure factor book was applied to calculate the carcinogenic risk in this study. Monte Carlo simulation was used as a probabilistic risk assessment model, and risk simulation results indicated that the inhalation-ILCR values for both male and female subjects followed a lognormal distribution with a mean of 4.81 × 10-6and 4.57 × 10-6, respectively. Furthermore, the 95 % probability lung cancer risks were greater than the USEPA acceptable level of 10-6for both men and women through the inhalation route, revealing that exposure to PAHs posed an unacceptable potential cancer risk for the elderly in this study. As a result, some measures should be taken to reduce PAHs pollution and the exposure level to decrease the cancer risk for the general population, especially for the elderly.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yating
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Energy Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental and Water Resources, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Jiefeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Hubei Provincial Meteorological Service Center, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China. baizp@craes.org.cn.
authors.forename: Zhipeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bai
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D016852:Housing for the Elderly; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D011336:Probability; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
keywords: Elderly; Inhalation rate; Monte Carlo simulation; PAHs; Personal exposure; Risk assessment; Tianjin