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Human Exposures to PAHs: an Eastern United States Pilot Study
Citation:
WILLIAMS, R. W., C. W. CROGHAN, AND P. B. RYAN. Human Exposures to PAHs: an Eastern United States Pilot Study. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT. Springer, New York, NY, 185(1):1011-1023, (2013).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Personal exposure monitoring for select polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was performed as part of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) Pilot Study in Baltimore, MD and in four surrounding counties (NHEXAS-Maryland). An objective of this effort was to establish environmental exposure estimates for non-scripted subpopulations involved in their normal activities. Participants, children, and adults (ages 13–84) were randomly selected from urban, suburban, and rural areas near Baltimore. Twenty-four hour PM10 sample collections (∼5.8 m3) were performed using personal environmental monitors. Monitoring was performed for 47 households and 6 sampling Cycles during 1995–1996. A total of 233 personal air samples were available from the participants with eight PAHs speciated (e.g., chrysene, benzo(a)pyrene) as well as an aggregate grouping (total carcinogenic PAHs). Results indicate that ∼50 % of the selected samples had detectable concentrations for 3 to 5 of the individual PAHs depending upon spatial setting. Noted differences were observed between exposure concentrations from individuals living in rural areas as compared to urban/suburban environments. Mean benzo(a)pyrene concentrations were observed to be 0.10 ng/m3 across the entire sampling population. This represented a value well below the World Health Organization’s 1.0 ng/m3 ambient air guideline for this PAH.
URLs/Downloads:
Human Exposures to PAHs: an Eastern United States Pilot Study (PDF, NA pp, 275 KB, about PDF)Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
