Seasonal and Spatial Occurrence and Distribution of Respirable
Particulate-bound Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Hisar City
(India) and Their Potential Health-risks
Affiliations: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering,
Delhi Technological University (Formerly Delhi College of Engineering) Bawana
Road, Shahbad, Delhi | Department of Environmental Science & Engineering
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana - 125 001, India
Abstract: A group of nine PAHs was detected using HPLC in commercial,
industrial and residential areas of Hisar city and their health effects were
discussed. PAHs have detrimental biological effects, including acute and
chronic toxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. An average of total PAHs in
commercial, industrial and residential areas was found to be 1798.52, 2196.81
and 2474.13 μg/g, respectively. For seasonal changes, maximum variations were
observed in monsoon followed by post-monsoon season, summer, autumn, and least
in winter. Among the nine PAHs analysed, benzo(k)fluoranthene exhibited maximum
concentration throughout the period of study. Significantly high variation was
observed for benzo[b]fluoranthene followed by benzo(k)fluoranthene, pyrene and
benzo(e)pyrene. Benzo[ghi]perylene > anthracene > fluoranthene >
phenanthrene > naphthalene represented significantly low variations. Large
PAHs were predominantly present and they represented large variations of
concentration during the study. The presence of other air pollutants can affect
the residence time of PAHs in air and the atmospheric chemical lifetimes of
particle-bound PAH with respect to thermal reactions tend to be longer than
those of gas-phase PAH.
