title: Occupational health risk assessment and exposure to floor dust PAHs inside an educational building.
abstract: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) settled in floor dust play an important role in human health. Although many studies investigated occupational exposure to PAHs, no attempts have been made to report PAHs concentrations as well as their health risk assessment inside an educational building in Jordan. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to report the PAHs concentrations in floor dust and evaluate their exposure and health risk inside the Department of Physics of the University of Jordan. The total PAHs concentrations ranged from 714 to 5246ng/g. The high concentrations were observed inside some offices, where tobacco smoking took place. One of those offices was previously renovated and some petrochemical liquids were used to remove the remaining glue from a previous carpet. Interestingly, the PAHs inside these offices were higher than those reported inside lecture rooms and the workshop area, where extensive activates of heavy machinery and use of petroleum products (such as lubricating oils). This implies that the health effects of exposure to tobacco smoking inside small micro-environmental places that are poorly ventilated can be very harmful. We also made a simple exposure and health risk assessment for the ingested dust (hand-to-mouth) by calculating the Estimated Daily Intake (EDI) and benzo(a)pyrene equivalent carcinogenic power (BaPE). The total EDI was less than 3.75ng/kg-bw/day whereas the BaPE was less than 385ng/g. These values are lower than what was reported in some previous studies in Europe and Asia.
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, PL 48, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Androniki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maragkidou
authors.affiliation: The University of Jordan, Department of Chemistry, Amman 11942, Jordan.
authors.forename: Sharif
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arar
authors.affiliation: University of Petra, Department of Chemistry, Amman, Jordan.
authors.forename: Afnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Hunaiti
authors.affiliation: University of Birmingham, School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Division of Environmental Health & Risk Management, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Yuning
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: University of Birmingham, School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Division of Environmental Health & Risk Management, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harrad
authors.affiliation: The University of Jordan, Department of Physics, Amman 11942, Jordan.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Jaghbeir
authors.affiliation: The University of Jordan, Department of Physics, Amman 11942, Jordan.
authors.forename: Dina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faouri
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, PL 48, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Kaarle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hämeri
authors.affiliation: The University of Jordan, Department of Physics, Amman 11942, Jordan. Electronic address: t.hussein@ju.edu.jo.
authors.forename: Tareq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hussein
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007597:Jordan; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012574:Schools
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
keywords: Indoor air pollution; Occupational exposure; PAHs; University floor dust