LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Annual changes in concentrations and health risks of PCDD/Fs, DL-PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in ambient air based on the Global Monitoring Plan in São Paulo.

Photo by mattpalmer from unsplash

Ambient air contains a number of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), to which inhalation exposure has drawn worldwide concern. However, information regarding annual changes in the concentrations and health risks of… Click to show full abstract

Ambient air contains a number of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), to which inhalation exposure has drawn worldwide concern. However, information regarding annual changes in the concentrations and health risks of POPs in the ambient air of São Paulo, Brazil, are limited. This study provides comprehensive information on annual changes in polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs), and 10 groups of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the ambient air of São Paulo between 2010 and 2015 based on the Global Monitoring Plan. The mass concentrations of the studied POPs (PCDD/Fs, DL-PCBs, and OCPs) showed declining trends from 2010 to 2015 (from 2.65 × 10-2 to 1.33 × 10-2 pg m-3, from 9.89 × 10-2 to 3.12 × 10-2 pg m-3, and from 0.313 to 0.100 ng m-3, respectively), which might be due to the decrease of non-intentional emissions. The carcinogenic risk (CR) and non-carcinogenic risk (Non-CR) of the studied POPs were 1.48 × 10-11 to 6.08 × 10-7 and 3.44 × 10-8 to 3.34 × 10-3, respectively, which are lower than the generally accepted threshold values (10-6/10-5 and 1 for CR and Non-CR, respectively), suggesting that the health risks posed by the studied POPs were acceptable. PCDD/Fs had the highest CR (6.08 × 10-8-4.81 × 10-7), whereas the 95th percentile CR of DL-PCBs and nine of the OCPs were lower than 10-7, suggesting that among the studied POPs, PCDD/Fs in the ambient air warrant special attention. The 95th percentile CRs of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (2.30 × 10-8), dieldrin (1.30 × 10-8), hexachlorocyclohexanes (1.05 × 10-8), heptachlor (8.97 × 10-9), hexachlorobenzene (6.47 × 10-9), chlordane (5.89 × 10-9), heptachlor epoxide (1.42 × 10-9), aldrin (1.33 × 10-9), and mirex (2.71 × 10-10) in ambient air were relatively low, suggesting that their threats to human health were negligible. In general, PCDD/Fs, DL-PCBs, and OCPs in the ambient air of São Paulo did not pose serious threats to human health during 2010-2015.

Keywords: ambient air; pcdd pcbs; air; health risks; annual changes

Journal Title: Environmental pollution
Year Published: 2019

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.