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Characterizations, relationship, and potential sources of outdoor and indoor particulate matter bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAH s) in a community of Tianjin, Northern China
Author(s) -
Han B.,
Bai Z.,
Liu Y.,
You Y.,
Xu J.,
Zhou J.,
Zhang J.,
Niu C.,
Zhang N.,
He F.,
Ding X.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12145
Subject(s) - environmental science , environmental chemistry , particulates , pollutant , ventilation (architecture) , coal combustion products , environmental engineering , coal , chemistry , meteorology , physics , organic chemistry
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAH s) are among the most toxic air pollutants in China. However, because there are unsubstantial data on indoor and outdoor particulate PAH s, efforts in assessing inhalation exposure and cancer risk to PAH s are limited in China. This study measured 12 individual PAH s in indoor and outdoor environments at 36 homes during the non‐heating period and heating period in 2009. Indoor PAH concentrations were comparable with outdoor environments in the non‐heating period, but were lower in the heating period. The average indoor/outdoor ratios in both sampling periods were lower than 1, while the ratios in the non‐heating period were higher than those in the heating period. Correlation analysis and coefficient of divergence also verified the difference between indoor and outdoor PAH s, which could be caused by high ventilation in the non‐heating period. To support this conclusion, linear and robust regressions were used to estimate the infiltration factor to compare outdoor PAH s to indoor PAH s. The calculated infiltration factors obtained by the two models were similar in the non‐heating period but varied greatly in the heating period, which may have been caused by the influence of ventilation. Potential sources were distinguished using a diagnostic ratio and a mixture of coal combustion and traffic emission, which are major sources of PAH s.