Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives (nitro-PAHs, oxygenated PAHs, and azaarenes) in PM2.5 from Southern European cities

Célia A Alves; Ana M Vicente; Danilo Custódio; Mário Cerqueira; Teresa Nunes; Casimiro Pio; Franco Lucarelli; Giulia Calzolai; Silvia Nava; Evangelia Diapouli; Konstantinos Eleftheriadis; Xavier Querol; Benjamin A Musa Bandowe

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.256

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives (nitro-PAHs, oxygenated PAHs, and azaarenes) in PM_2.5 from Southern European cities

Sci Total Environ. 2017 Oct 1:595:494-504. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.256. Epub 2017 Apr 7.

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Environment, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: celia.alves@ua.pt.
² Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Environment, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
³ Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, Università di Firenze and INFN-Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy.
⁴ National Centre for Scientific Research (NCSR) "Demokritos", 15341 Ag. Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece.
⁵ Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Research Council, C/Jordi Girona, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Reinhard-Baumeister-Platz 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany; Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU), School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK; Institute of Geography & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.

PMID: 28395264
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.256

Abstract

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM_2.5) samples were collected over two one month periods during winter and summer in three Southern European cities (Oporto - traffic site, Florence - urban background, Athens - suburban). Concentrations of 27 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 15 nitro-PAHs (NPAHs), 15 oxygenated-PAHs (OPAHs) and 4 azaarenes (AZAs) were determined. On average, the winter-summer concentrations of ΣPAHs were 16.3-5.60, 7.75-3.02 and 3.44-0.658ngm^-3 in Oporto, Florence and Athens, respectively. The corresponding concentrations of ΣNPAHs were 15.8-9.15, 10.9-3.36 and 15.9-2.73ngm^-3, whilst ΣOPAHs varied in the ranges 41.8-19.0, 11.3-3.10 and 12.6-0.704ngm^-3. Concentrations of ΣAZAs were always below 0.5ngm^-3. Irrespective of the city, the dominant PAHs were benzo[b+j+k]fluoranthene, retene, benzo[ghi]perylene and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene. The most abundant OPAH in all cities was 1,8-naphthalic anhydride, whereas 5-nitroacenaphthene was the prevailing NPAH. The ΣOPAHs/ΣPAHs and ΣNPAHs/ΣPAHs were higher in summer than in winter, suggesting increasing formation of derivatives by photochemical degradation of PAHs. Molecular diagnostic ratios suggested that, after traffic, biomass burning was the dominant emission source. Apart from being influenced by seasonal sources, the marked differences between winter and summer may indicate that these diagnostic ratios are particularly sensitive to photodegradation, and thus should be applied and interpreted cautiously. The lifetime excess cancer risk from inhalation was, in part, attributable to PAH derivatives, acclaiming the need to include these compounds in regular monitoring programmes. On average, 206, 88 and 26 cancer cases per million people were estimated, by the World Health Organisation method, for the traffic-impacted, urban background and suburban atmospheres of Oporto, Florence and Athens, respectively.

Keywords: Cancer risk; Nitro-PAHs; Oxygenated-PAHs; PAHs; PM(2.5).