Temporal Trends and Cancer Risk of Parent and Halogenated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water Environment Impacted by Urban and Industrial Activities

The halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (H-PAHs) have been paid increasing attentions due to their potential health hazards. This research firstly investigated distribution and cancer risk of 7 parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 19 H-PAHs in Songhua river and Songhua lake of Jilin city, China. The results indicate that 7 parent PAHs and 12 H-PAHs were coexisted. The total concentrations of PAHs, Cl-PAHs, and Br-PAHs respectively ranged from 75.6 to 323.33 with a median concentration of 164.48 ng/L, n.d. to 45.87 with a median concentration of 2.19 ng/L, and n.d. to 56.93 ng/L with a median concentration of 4.67 ng/L. The seasonal variation was obvious; the highest total concentrations of PAHs and H-PAHs were occurred in melt season, which suggests that melting snow and riverine input were major sources of PAHs and H-PAHs. For cancer risk, the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values of PAHs and HPAHs for all the sampling sites and water seasons were lower than 1.00E-06, suggesting that the cancer risk of these compounds were low, while the cancer risk may be underestimated due to a lack of toxicity data for some H-PAHs.

Automated summary

This research investigated the distribution and cancer risk of 7 parent PAHs and 19 H-PAHs in Songhua river and Songhua lake of Jilin city, China. The results showed that these compounds coexisted and their concentrations varied seasonally. The cancer risk of these compounds was generally low, although it may be underestimated due to a lack of toxicity data for some H-PAHs.