Characterization of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Iron and Black Carbon within Street Dust from a Steel Industrial City, Central China

Zhang, Jiaquan and Zhan, Changlin and Liu, Hongxia and Liu, Ting and Yao, Ruizhen and Hu, Tianpeng and Xiao, Wensheng and Xing, Xinli and Xu, Hongmei and Cao, Junji (2016) Characterization of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Iron and Black Carbon within Street Dust from a Steel Industrial City, Central China. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 16 (10). pp. 2452-2461. ISSN 1680-8584

Abstract

Twenty-two street dust samples collected from a small steel city, central China, were analyzed for 16 USEPA priority PAHs to investigate the concentration, spatial distribution relationship with black carbon (BC) and Iron (Fe), and the source apportionment and to assess the health risk of these compounds. The mean contents of PAHs, BC and Fe were 4.43 µg g–1, 12837.97 mg kg–1, 70205.70 mg kg–1, respectively. The highest spot was in the surrounding of the E’zhou Steel Plant and the Steel Rolling Mill of E’zhou. The correlation analysis indicated that there was no obvious relationship between Fe with each other, the PAHs significantly correlated to black carbon (BC), which might be caused by the continuous emission sources of iron and steel production. The results of sources identification suggested that PAHs contaminations in street dust were a mixed source of industrial production and traffic emission combustion. The incremental lifetime and cancer risks (ILCRs) of exposing to PAHs in the street dust of the E’zhou city for the three age groups (namely childhood, adolescence, adulthood) fluctuated with in the range of 10–6 to 10–4, indicating a potential of carcinogenic risk for exposed populations.