Health risk assessment and source study of PAHs from roadside soil dust of a heavy mining area in India

The total concentrations of 13 detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in different traffic soil samples of Dhanbad heavy mining area, India, were between 8.256 and 12.562 mu g/g and were dominated by four ring PAHs (44%). Diagnostic ratio study revealed that fossil fuel burning and vehicular pollution are the most prominent sources of the PAHs in roadside soil even at a heavy coal mining area. The 90th percentiles cancer risks determined by probabilistic health risk assessment (Monte Carlo simulations) for both the age groups (children and adults) were above tolerable limit (>1.00E-06) according to USEPA. The simulated mean cancer risk was 1.854E-05 for children and 1.823E-05 for adults. For different exposure pathways, dermal contact was observed to be the major pathway with an exposure load of 74% for children and 85% for adults. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated relative skin adherence factor for soil (AF) is the most influential parameter of the simulation, followed by exposure duration (ED).