Characteristics, identification, and potential risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in road dusts and agricultural soils from industrial sites in Shanghai, China

Road dusts and agricultural soil samples were collected from eight sites close to steel mills, chemical plants, and municipal solid waste incinerator in suburban Shanghai. Sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) priority controlled list were analyzed quantitatively using GC-MS. The total PAH concentrations ranged from 0.79 to 6.2 μg g⁻¹ in road dust samples with a mean value of 2.38 μg g⁻¹ and 0.26 to 0.54 μg g⁻¹ in agricultural soils with an average of 0.36 μg g⁻¹. The most abundant individual PAHs were phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, and benzo(b)fluoranthene in dust samples and phenanthrene, fluoranthene, chrysene, and benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo (k) fluoranthene in soil samples. Dominant compounds were four-ring and five- to six-ring PAHs, which accounted for 41.5 and 31.5 % in dusts and 33.9 and 41.1 % in soils. The spatial distribution of PAHs in dusts and soils was consistent. The wind direction could affect the spatial distribution of PAHs. Organic matter contents were found to be significantly positively correlated with PAH concentrations in both dusts and soils while grain size of particles had no correlation with PAH concentrations and could not significantly influence the distribution of PAH concentrations. PAH isomer ratios showed that combustion of grass, wood, and coal was important sources of PAHs in road dusts and agricultural soils. Toxic equivalent concentrations indicated seven kinds of carcinogenetic PAHs were major toxic equivalent concentration (TEQ) contributors, accounting for 98 % of TEQ, in the road dusts and agricultural soils. Incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) estimation results showed that the PAHs in the dusts and soils had potential cancer risk for both children and adults only by direct ingestion exposure. The TEQ and ILCR values of PAHs in road dusts were much higher than those in soils, which suggested that PAHs in road dusts could be an important source of PAHs in soils.