Occurrence and Ecological and Human Health Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soils from Wuhan, Central China

Tekleweini Gereslassie, Ababo Workineh, Xiaoning Liu, Xue Yan and Jun Wang
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Tekleweini Gereslassie: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Ababo Workineh: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Xiaoning Liu: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Xue Yan: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Jun Wang: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are large groups of ubiquitous environmental pollutants composed of two or more fused aromatic rings. This study was designed to evaluate the distribution, potential sources, and ecological and cancer risks of eleven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from Huangpi soils in Wuhan, central China. The soil samples for this study were taken from 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths. A modified matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction method was applied to extract analytes from the soil samples. A gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector was used to determine the concentrations of the compounds. The sum mean concentrations of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were 138.93 and 154.99 µg kg −1 in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively. Benzo[ a ]pyrene and fluorene were the most abundant compounds in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively. The quantitative values of the pyrogenic index, total index, and diagnostic ratio used in this study showed that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have a pyrogenic origin. The negligible and maximum permissible concentrations values for naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, benz[ a ]anthracene, and benzo[ a ]pyrene indicated a moderate ecological risk. The incremental lifetime cancer risk values for adults and children showed a low and moderate cancer risk, respectively.

Keywords: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; land-use; ecological risk; potential sources; cancer risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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