Indoor Air Pollution And Personal Exposure To Fine Particulate Matter And PAHs In Rural Area Of Heshun, Shanxi

Indoor air pollution is considered to be a very important risk fact for humanhealth as people spend most of their time indoor. In developing countries, the primarysource of indoor air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) and PolycyclicAromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) released during the combustion of solid fuels such ascoal and biofuels (wood, crop residues and dung) when cooking and heating.Long-term exposures to these high concentration of PM and PAHs has been linked toa range of adverse health such as respiratory diseases or lung cancer. In this study, inorder to assesses resident's daily exposures to PM and gaseous and particulate PAHs,personal cascade impactor with size-segregated sampler and polyurethane foams(PUF) were used to collected particulate matter (>2.5,2.5-1.0,1.0-0.25and <0.25μm)and gaseous sampling in rural area of Heshun, Shanxi.Concentrations of PM, PAHs, nitro-PAHs (NPAHs) and oxygenated PAHs(OPAHs) in kitchen were higher than both in indoor (living room or bedroom) andoutdoor areas. Particles and particle-associated PAHs are present predominantly onfine particles that are less2.5μm. Daily concentrations of PM_2.5in kitchen, indoorand outdoor sites were375.9±572.8μg/m³,114.1±80.9μg/m³and64.0±28.2μg/m³.Size ranges that less than2.5μm were significantly corresponded with each other (p<0.05). Daily concentrations of16PAHs in these three sites that mentioned abovewere5947.2±6613.7ng/m³,1882.9±2266.8ng/m³and1010.7±399.0ng/m³respectively.FLO and PHE were predominately PAHs in these areas.Personal exposure to PM_2.5concentration (96.4±51.1μg/m³) was lower than thatof kitchen and indoor sites. Daily inhalation exposure of16PAHs, NPAHs andOPAHs were2003.5±1171.8ng/m³,0.49±0.28ng/m³and18.2±22.5ng/m³respectively. Gas phase and particle-associated PAHs were predominated by FLO andPHE respectively. Particle-associated PAHs, NPAHs and OPAHs (BZQ and BaAQ) were mainly present in the size range that less than1.0μm while9FO and ATQ weremainly present in coarse particles.The same with the sites monitoring results, personalexposure to PM_2.5, PAHs or other pollutants for wood and peat coal were higher thanother fuels. The highest concentrations of PM_2.5were for peat coal used and PAHs,NPAHs, OPAHs, EC (Element Carbon) and OC (Organic Carbon) were for wood.Daily inhalation exposure of PM_2.5and BaP were1.3and8.2times of ournational standard. In this study, the calculated results of toxic equivalent factor (TEF)of BaP (BaPeq) were found that the contributions of particle-associated PAHs weremuch higher than gas phase. The health risk of PAHs was dramatically increased withthe decrease of the size of particle matters. Daily inhalation exposure to PAHs washighest when household wood burning and the secondary were peat coal. Dailyexposure to BaP and BePeq were122.0and690.4ng/day.