Health risk assessment on dietary exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Taiyuan, China

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Abstract

Twenty-five kinds of seven categories of foods were sampled in December 2008 and the concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined. The highest level of total PAHs was detected in pork (195.30 ng/g) whereas the lowest concentration was found in milk (8.73 ng/g). The median values of B[a]P equivalent (B[a]Peq) daily exposure doses for children, adolescents, adults and seniors of male were estimated to be 392.42, 511.01, 571.56 and 532.56 ng/d, respectively, whereas those for the above population groups of female were found to be 355.16, 440.51, 487.64 and 444.85 ng/d, respectively. The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values at the 22.1th, 26.1th, 12.7th, 24.9th, 22.7th, 27.0th, 12.9th, and 25.5th percentiles for male children, male adolescents, male adults, male seniors, female children, female adolescents, female adults and female seniors, respectively, were larger than 10 6, indicating high potential carcinogenic risk, and were larger than 10 4 at the 74.5th, 78.7th, 60.6th, 77.4th, 75.3th, 79.5th, 60.8th and 77.9th percentiles for the above groups, respectively, which implied significant cancer risk. Sensitivity analysis found that the two variables of oral cancer slope factor of benzo(a) pyrene (SF) and the daily dietary PAH exposure level (ED) had the greater impact than that of body weight (BW) on the ILCR.

Introduction

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of fused ring aromatic compounds that are formed during the incomplete combustion of organic material (Howard and Fazio, 1980, McGrath et al., 2007, Mumtaz et al., 1996). PAHs have generated considerable interest ever since they were recognized as a carcinogenic class of compounds in the late twenties (Okona-Mensah et al., 2005, Phillips, 1999, Pufulete et al., 2004, Ramesh et al., 2004). Several individual PAHs such as benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), chrysene (CHR), indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene (IcdP) and benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF) have produced carcinogenic, mutagenic, and genotoxic effects in animal experiments (Deutsch-Wenzel et al., 1983, Thyssen et al., 1981). Human cancer causes of skin, lungs, and bladder have always been associated with PAH exposures (Armstrong et al., 2004, Boffetta et al., 1997, Chen and Liao, 2006, Kameda et al., 2005).

Dietary intake of PAHs constitutes a major source of human exposure (Falcó et al., 2005, Mumtaz et al., 1996, Phillips, 1999). PAHs occur as contaminants in various food categories including vegetables, fruits, meats, cereals, oils, milk, etc. (De-Vos et al., 1990, Lawrence and Weber, 1984, Lodovici et al., 1995). Recent epidemiological studies have revealed that dietary exposure to PAHs is associated with an increased risk of some human cancers (Brody et al., 2007, Lee and Shim, 2007, Stacewicz-Sapuntzakis et al., 2008, Yoon et al., 2007). In recent years, environmental PAH concentrations have increased in many industrialized and developing countries, leading to high levels of PAHs in foodstuffs. However, reports concerning dietary exposure of PAHs are quite limited.

Taiyuan is an old industrial city of China, with unreasonably designed industrial structure and layout, resulting in high energy consumption and heavy pollution. This city is surrounded by mountains and its urban area is located in a semi-closed basin. In Taiyuan, annual average wind speed is small (2.4–2.5 m/s) and the temperature inversion time is up to 20 days per month in both winter and spring. Due to high intensity of pollutant emission, special geographical location and adverse weather conditions, Taiyuan becomes one of the most polluted cities in China and PAHs may have been a threat to the health of local residents (Zhang et al., 2009). Thus, obtaining the cancer risk level of citizens in Taiyuan associated with the dietary intake of PAHs is essential for effective environmental management. However, no such information is currently available, leaving a great information gap.

The objective of this study is to quantify the daily dietary PAH exposure level (ED) for different population groups and to estimate the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) in Taiyuan. To determine the overall uncertainty in predicted risks, the uncertainty resulting from the assessment of exposure was propagated through the risk characterization process using the Monte Carlo simulation. Moreover, a detailed sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the input variables that were critical to the accuracy of the risk assessment.

Section snippets

Sampling

In December 2008, twenty-five kinds of seven categories of foods, which have been surveyed as the primary foods consumed by local residents (Ge, 1992, Zhai and Yang, 2006), were purchased in representative supermarkets, wholesale markets and community farmers' markets in Taiyuan, China. These foods included fruits (apples and pears), vegetables (Chinese cabbage, cabbage, potato, spinach, cucumber, carrot, beans, lettuce, eggplant, cauliflower and pepper), rice, wheat, fish (common carp,

Concentrations of PAHs in foods

Concentrations of PAHs in food samples collected in Taiyuan are shown in Fig. 1 and the detailed results for all PAHs are presented in the Supporting Information (SI). According to the food categories, the highest level of total PAHs was detected in pork (195.30 ng/g), followed by beef and mutton (189.00 ng/g), fish (160.30 ng/g) and chicken (87.49 ng/g) whereas the lowest concentration was found in milk (8.73 ng/g) and vegetables (20.60 ng/g) (Fig. 1). Li, 2007, Martí-Cid et al., 2008 also found

Acknowledgements

The funding of this study was provided by the Gong-Yi Program of China Ministry of Environmental Protection (No. 200809101), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40730737 and 140710019001) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 20090460128).

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