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Research Article IJAER (2017); 3(1): 33-48
Citation: EL-Shakoura, A.A., A.S. EL-Ebiarieb, Y.H. Ibrahima, A.E.A. Moniemb and A.M. EL-Mekawya. 2017. A
comparative study of indoor and outdoor polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pah) levels in residential homes in
Helwan, Egypt. Int. J. Agri and Env. Res., 3(1): 33-48.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INDOOR AND OUTDOOR POLYCYCLIC
AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAH) LEVELS IN RESIDENTIAL
HOMES IN HELWAN, EGYPT
ALIA ABD EL-SHAKOURA, AHMAD SALEM EL-EBIARIEB, YASSER HASSAN IBRAHIMA,
AHMAD ESMAT ABDEL MONIEMB, ASMAA MOHAMED EL-MEKAWYA
Air Pollution Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
Zoology and Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
Corresponding author’s email: [email protected]
Abstract
Air quality data of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) indoors are sparse or lacking in Egypt. The
concentration of 16 PAHs in particulate matter of both indoor and outdoor air of Helwan city (south Cairo,
Egypt) were measured simultaneously by high-performance liquid chromatography during one year, started
from September 2010 to August 2011. Helwan City is characterized by the presence of industrial activities
beside traffic and commercial activities. The source identification of PAHs in airborne particulate matter was
performed by diagnostic ratios. The outdoor annual mean concentration of PAHs over Helwan city was 708.9
ng/m3, while the indoor PAHs levels ranged from 694.7 ng/m3 at site 2 to 1038.7 ng/m3 at site 3. The average
annual mean concentration of B[a]P over Helwan city was 34.8 ng/m3. The mean annual concentration of
B[a]P in all homes was 70 ng/m3. B[a]P-equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in outdoor air were 99.96,
162.31, 71.1 and 36.75 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. On the other hand, indoor BAPE were 193.04,
92.91, 145.91 and 106.47 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively.
Key words: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Indoor PAHs, Outdoor PAHs, air quality and Helwan Egypt.
INTRODUCTION
Indoor concentrations of some pollutants
generally exceed outdoor concentrations by up to
about five times (Mitchell et al., 2007; Jia et al.,
2008; Demirel et al., 2014). However, human spends
about 90% of their time indoor (Li, 2013; Gao et al.,
2014; Wetzel and Doucette, 2015). When indoor air
contains elevated concentrations of pollutants (e.g.
volatile organic compounds and carcinogenic
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) they pose serious
risk of adverse health effects, so it is important to
monitor indoor air quality and maintain it at the non-
harmful level for human beings (Naeher et al., 2007;
Chaigneau, 2012). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) are among the most important compounds,
they are a widespread class of environmental
pollutants of semi-volatile organic compounds that
consist of two or more fused benzene rings. They are
produced as a result of incomplete combustion of
organic matter (Slezáková, 2009; Hrustinszky, 2012).
PAHs are emitted from both natural and
International Journal of Agricultural and
Environmental Research FREE AND OPEN ACCESS
Available online at www.ijaaer.com ISSN 2414-8245 (Online)
ISSN 2518-6116 (Print)
34
anthropogenic processes. PAHs are widely detected
air pollutants in particulate and gaseous phases, both
indoor and outdoor. PAHs have low volatility and
low aqueous solubility, and are mainly adsorbed to
particles, such as house dust, rather than existing in
the gaseous phase (IARC, 2010; Lu et al., 2011).
Although several hundred PAHs exist, , only a
subset of 16 PAHs are measured by the US
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), which
were selected based on their toxicity, distribution in
the environment, and potential risk to human health
(Hrustinszky, 2012).
This study was carried out for assessing the
concentrations and sources of PAHs in the indoor and
the outdoor air ; and for studying the relation between
indoor and outdoor PAHs in Helwan City.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Area under Investigation: Helwan is a city in Egypt
located on the bank of the Nile river. It is situated
about 24 km south east of Cairo city. Helwan is a
residential area surrounded from its north and south
by industrial activities (cement, automobiles, iron and
steel, lead and zinc smelting, foundries, ceramics,
chemicals, coke, fertilizers, spinning and weaving,
starch, and other miscellaneous activities). In
addition, there are two big power stations, one in the
north and the other in the south of Helwan city.
Helwan is impacted by emissions from nearby
industrial activities beside traffic and commercial
activities.
Site Characterization and Sampling Strategy:
Homes were chosen in order to adequately cover the
various sections and activities taking place in the area
under investigation. Participants were recruited on a
voluntarily basis. According to building surroundings
and road configuration, four residential buildings in
Helwan city were selected, and represented as sites 1,
2, 3 and 4 as shown in table (1) and figure (1). Table
(2) represents questionnaire items defining the factors
affecting presence of pollutants and their levels in the
homes under investigation.
Figure (1): Map of Helwan city showing sampling sites.
35
Table (1): Description of sampling sites and their characteristics.
Site Description
Site 1 ❖ Located in Helwan city center
❖ A flat on the fourth floor with about 16 m high from ground level.
❖ With medium road traffic.
❖ built in 1975.
❖ Downwind of Cairo city.
❖ Represents residential area.
Site 2 ❖ Located in Helwan city center.
❖ A flat on the second floor with about 5 m high from ground level.
❖ Adjacent to a busy road with heavy traffic.
❖ built in 1972.
❖ Downwind of Cairo city.
❖ about 900m away from site1.
❖ Represents commercial /residential area with high traffic.
Site 3 ❖ Located in Wady Hoff at the north of Helwan city.
❖ A flat on the second floor with about 5 m high from ground level.
❖ no main traffic roads, but the relatively narrow lanes for residents and private
cars in and out.
❖ built in 1989.
❖ Downwind of Cairo city.
❖ Represents residential area with light traffic.
Site 4 ❖ Located in Torra (cement factory located close to residential area) at the
northern part of Helwan city.
❖ A flat on the first floor.
❖ built in 1985.
❖ Downwind of Cairo city.
❖ Represents a popular residential area (buildings are close to each other).
Table (2): Questionnaire items defining the factors affecting presence of pollutants and their levels.
Questions Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4
Cooking (hour) 4 2 3 6
Using ventilation fan Yes No Yes Yes
Type of fuel natural gas natural gas natural gas *LPG
Presence of smokers Yes (1) No No No
Floor type of living room Carpet Carpet Carpet Carpet
Use of air conditioner Yes
(only bed room) No
Yes
(only bed room) No
Duration of opening windows in
living room (hour) 5 1 3 0.5
Use of pesticides Few No No No
Liquefied Petroleum Gas: Sixteen PAHs
identified as priority pollutants by USEPA
(Hrustinszky, 2012) were selected for quantification
in Suspended Particulate Matter: Naphthalene,
36
Acenaphthylene, Acenaphthene, Fluorene,
Phenanthrene, Anthracene, Fluoranthene, Pyrene,
Benz[a]Anthracene, Chrysene,
Benzo[b]Fluoranthene, Benzo[k]Fluoranthene,
Benzo[a]Pyrene, Dibenz[a,h] Anthracene,
Benzo[ghi]Perylene, Indeno[1,2,3-c,d] Pyrene.
Sampling of PAHs in outdoor and indoor air:
Samples were collected in outdoor and indoor,
simultaneously at all sites under investigation
through glass fiber filter paper of whatman GFA type
(12cm in diameter) with 99% collection efficiency
(NAS, 1973; Samara et al., 1990). The sampling flow
rate was 14 liter/min. for 24 hours once per week.
Sampling started from September 2010 to August
2011. Indoor samples were collected at height about
1.5 meters from the floor of living room, while
outdoor samples were taken at 1.5–2m high in the
balcony, for at least 1m from the house wall and
about 4 to 10m above ground level (figure 4). The
glass fiber filters were impregnated in acetone before
sampling to remove all organic compounds for 24h
then heated in furnace oven at 400C° for 4h. The
cleaned glass fiber filters were stored in desiccators
until sampling (Thrane and Mikalsen, 1981;
Yamasaki et al., 1982).
Extraction of PAHs: Filters were placed in
glass vial and extracted with 10ml of
dichloromethane (DCM)/n-hexan (1:1) extra pure
HPLC grade, vials were placed in ultrasonic bath for
10min at room temperature, this process was repeated
three times. The extract was filtered and concentrated
to about 2ml using rotary evaporator (loborota 4003
control rotary evaporator with G3 glassware,
heidolph, Germany) (Nielsen, 1996-a; Nielsen et al.,
1996-b; Escriva et al.,.1991; Fromme et al.,1998).
The concentrated extracts were passed through
column chromatography. PAHs were eluted with
20ml of DCM/n-hexane (1:1) extra pure HPLC
grade. The volume of elutes were concentrated using
a gentle flow of dry nitrogen gas to a volume of
approximately 2ml. according to (Omar et al., 2002;
Sharma et al., 2007).
Instrument Analysis: Qualitative and quantitative
determination of individual PAHs was done using
High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC).
The HPLC was calibrated with a diluted standard
solution of 16 PAHs compounds (Supleco, Inc.,
Bellefonte, PA). The standard PAHs mixture
(2000µg/ml for each) was containing Sixteen PAHs
identified as priority pollutants by USEPA. The
peaks in the chromatogram were identified by
comparing retention times (from HPLC
chromatogram) with those of standards and they were
quantified by comparing the integrated peak area
with that of the nearest standard. The concentrations
of individual PAHs were calculated and expressed in
ng/m3.
Detection Limits: The detection limit of each
compound was calculated from the data of duplicate
measurements of low concentration samples and
observed from their standard deviation. The method
detection limits ranged from 0.4 to 2 ng/m3 for the
target PAHs.
Quality Assurance /Quality Control: The quality
assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedure
included laboratory and field blanks, parallel samples
and duplicate measurements of samples. The
laboratory blanks and the field blanks were tested
with no significant contamination found for any of
target PAHs. Duplicate field samples were collected
at all the sampling locations. The relative standard
deviation (RSD) for duplicate analyses of all the field
samples varied from 10 to 15% for all the measured
PAHs.
The recovery test was done by spiking known
amounts of PAH onto pre-extracted SPM retained on
glass fiber filters and extracted using the same
analytical method. A recovery of better than 90% for
most PAHs components was obtained. In the present
study, all laboratory tools used in sample collection
analysis, and storage were soaked in 10% HNO3 for
two days and then rinsed thoroughly with distilled
and double distilled water, respectively, before use.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in
Ambient Air
Annual and Seasonal Mean Concentration of
∑PAHs in Ambient Air: From figure (2) it can be
noticed that the outdoor annual mean concentration
37
of ∑PAHs (the summation of 16 PAHs) over Helwan city was 708.9ng/m3.
Figure (2): The annual mean concentration of ∑PAHs (ng/m3) in outdoor air of the investigated sites.
This concentration is much higher than the
concentration found in other studies around the world
e.g. Tian et al. (2009) in Harbin (100±94ng/m3);
Drooge et al. (2010) in Tyrolean Alps, Europe,
Tenerife and in Central Norway (0.20, 0.00 ,0.38
ng/m3, respectively); Ma et al. (2011) reported that
the mean total ΣPAHs was 104 ± 130ng/m3 at
Beijing during the 29th Olympic Games; Liu et al.
(2013) found a concentration of (0 ± 6.6 ng/m3 and
20 ± 15 ng/m3) in two different sites in summer and
Chen et al. (2014) reported that the range of PAHs
was (0.06–2.53ng/m3 with average 0.59ng/m3) in
Lulang, Tibet; Krugly et al. (2014) found a
concentration ranged from 40.7 to 121.2 ng/m3) in
outdoors. The maximum annual mean concentration
of ∑PAHs in outdoor air was 921 ng/m3 at site 2.
High PAHs concentration at site 2 may be due to
vehicular emissions near this site.
The seasonal variations in the concentrations of
total PAHs (∑PAH16) compounds are represented
graphically in figure (3). The ∑PAH16 mean
concentrations showed seasonal variation with the
highest level during summer and spring seasons,
while the lower were measured during winter and
autumn season at most of the investigated sites,
except for site 3 which had higher PAHs
concentration during autumn season. Partitioning
Characteristics of PAHs in Outdoor Air: Figure (4)
shows the percentages contribution of low molecular
weight (LMW) (two and three rings PAHs), middle
molecular weight (MMW) (four and five rings PAHs)
and high molecular weight (HMW) (six rings PAHs)
PAH compounds to ∑PAH in the outdoor air of sites
1, 2, 3 and 4, during the period of study. It can be
noticed that the most abundant PAHs during the
period of study were LMW (2 and 3 rings) at sites 1,
3 and 4, with relative higher percentage of the LMW
at site 3.
On the other hand, the most abundant PAHs
compounds at site 2 were MMW (4 and 5 rings).
38
There was a higher percent of HMW at sites 2 and 4 than that reported at sites 1 and 3
.
Figure (3): Seasonal mean concentrations of total PAH compounds (ng/m3) in outdoor air of sites under investigation.
Figure (4): Percentage of LMW, MMW and HMW PAH compounds in outdoor air of sites under investigation.
39
LMW PAHs at sites 1, 3 and 4 may be due to its
emission from industrial activities (such as coke and
iron and steel) and the traffic emissions especially
from diesel engines. These results are in agreement
with Randolph et al. (2003) who reported that coke
production was marker for anthracene, phenanthrene,
benzo(a)pyrene and benzo(ghi) perylene. On the
other hand, there was a higher percent of MMW and
HMW PAHs at site 2 this may be attributed to
vehicular emissions beside the industrial one, higher
molecular weight PAHs are emitted especially from
vehicular emissions (Pandey et al., 1999).
Percentage of the Total Carcinogenic Compounds to
the ∑ PAHs in Outdoor Air: EPA has clssified
benz[a]anthracene (BAA), benzo[b]fluoranthene
(BBF), benzo[a]pyrene (BAP), dibenz
[a,h]anthracene (DBA) and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene
(IND) as probable human carcinogens (USEPA,
1995).
From figure (5) it can be noticed that percentage of
the total carcinogenic compounds to the ∑ PAH16 at
all sites are almost similar. The maximum
percentages of the total carcinogenic compounds to
the ∑ PAH16 were during spring and summer
seasons at almost all sites under investigation.
Figure (5): Annual percentage of the total carcinogenic compounds.
The annual average concentrations of the total
carcinogenic compounds in outdoor air were 235.9,
469.3, 248.6 and 138.9 ng/m3 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4,
respectively. The annual average concentration of the
total carcinogenic compounds in outdoor air of
Helwan city was 273.1 ng/m3. The highest annual
percentage of the total carcinogenic compounds to
the ∑ PAH16 was at site 2 reaching 50.9% of the
total concentration of PAHs (469.3ng/m3), while, the
minimum annual percentage of the total carcinogenic
compounds to the ∑ PAH16 was at site 3 reaching
29.5% of the total concentration of PAHs (248.6
ng/m3). Higher annual percentage of the total
carcinogenic compounds to the ∑ PAH16 at site 2
may be attributed to the presence of heavy traffice in
this site.
Benz[a]pyrene Carcinogenic Fraction of PAHs in
Ambient Air of Helwan City: Benz[a]pyrene (B[a]P)
is one of the most important PAHs because of its
carcinogenic properties. It has been regarded as the
40
compound with the most important consequences for
human health because it is probable carcinogenic to
humans classified in group-1 (IARC, 2002; IARC,
2009a). B[a]P was considered to be a sufficient index
for PAH carcinogenicity. B[a]P has been widely used
as an indicator of air quality and for overall PAH
carcinogenicity (WHO, 2000).
In the present study, the annual mean
concentrations of B[a]P were 51.6, 39.01, 43.59 and
5.01ng/m3 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The
average annual mean concentration of B[a]P over
Helwan city was 34.8ng/m3, this concentration is
about thirty four times higher than the Italian
standard for B[a]P (1ng/m3), it exceeded both the
upper limit (2.5ng/m3) of the Chinese AAQS, and the
annual standard of the Chinese AAQS (1.0ng/m3)
(Delgado-Saborit et al., 2011), and the value of 0.25
ng/m3 set by the UK air quality standard (EPAQS,
1999). It is also much higher than concentration
reported by Delgado-Saborit et al. (2011) in outdoor
air of UK (0.19ng/m3).
B[a]P -equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in
Outdoor Air: For other compounds with carcinogenic
properties such as BAA, DBA, BBF and IND the
following equation was used to calculate the B[a]P -
equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) (Cecinato,
1997 and Cecinato et al., 1998):
BAPE= BAA×0.06+ DBA×0.6+BAP+
BBF×0.07+ IND×0.08: This index tries to
paramterize the health risk for humans related to
ambient PAH expositions, and is calculated by
multiplying the concentration of each carcinogenic
congener with its carcinogenic factor obtained by
laboratory studies. By this way the contribution of
other carcinogenic compounds was also considered
instead of taking only BAP as a compound
representing carcinogenicty, allowing a better
parameter to be related to the whole PAH fraction.
From table (3), it can be noticed that B[a]P-
equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in outdoor air
were 99.96, 162.31, 71.1 and 36.75 at sites 1, 2, 3 and
4, respectively.
Table (3): Annual means concentration of total carcinogenic PAH concentration (ng/m3) and B[a]P -
equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in outdoor air of the investigated sites
Site BAPE ∑ PAH Carcinogenic
Site 1 99.96 235.93
Site 2 162.31 469.35
Site 3 71.10 248.67
Site 4 36.75 138.91
B[a]P -equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in this
study is much higher than those reported by Ohura et
al. (2004b) in Shizuoka, Japan; Chang et al. (2006) in
urban of Taiwan; Tuntawiroon et al. (2007) in
Bangok, Thailand; Akyuz and Cabuk (2008) in
Turkey and Callen et al. (2008) in Zaragoza, Spain
and.
PAHs in Indoor Air: Annual and Seasonal Variation
of PAHs Concentration in the Indoor Air: Annual
mean concentration of ∑PAHs in the indoor air of the
investigated sites ranged from 694.7ng/m3 at site 2 to
1038.7 ng/m3 at site 3 (as seen from figure (6)).
These concentrations are much higher than
concentration found in other studies, such as the
concentration ranged from n.d. to 62.8 ng/m3 with a
mean of 2.16 ng/m3found by Delgado-Saborit et al.
(2011) in the indoors environments in United
Kingdom; and the concentrations of 8 PAHs
(∑PAHs) ranged from 7.1 to 320 ng/m3 and 0.15 to
32 ng/m3, with an average of 47 ng/m3 and 5.2
ng/m3 in residential air of Hangzhou, China and
Shizuoka, Japane, respectively (Lu et al., 2011); and
more than that recorded by He et al. (2014) (58.19
ng/m3) for tPAHs in Nanjing, China.
It is clear that, PAHs concentration vary according to
the influence of specific source emitter at each site.
41
Figure (6): The annual mean concentration of ∑PAHs (ng/m3) in indoor air of the investigated sites.
The particle bound PAH16 mean concentrations
showed seasonal variation with the highest level
during spring and summer, while the lowest values
were reported in winter season for all sites under
investigation except for site 4 (figure 7). These
results are in accordance with Lu et al. (2011) who
found higher PAHs concentration during summer
season in residential air of Hangzhou, China, while
the lower concentration was during winter season.
Figure (7): Seasonal mean concentration of total PAH compounds (ng/m3) in indoor air of sites under investigation.
42
Partitioning Characteristics of PAHs Compounds in
Indoor Air: The most abundant PAHs during the
period of study was LMW (2 and 3rings) at sites 1, 2
and 3, with relative higher percent of HMW at sites 2
and 3 than other sites. On the other hand, the most
abundant PAHs compounds at site 4 were MMW (4
and 5rings) (as shown in figure (8)). Relative higher
ratios of low molecular weight PAHs (two and three
rings) usually indicates that PAHs are originated
from local sources in homes such as cooking and
smoking practices, while higher molecular weight
indicates that PAHs in the indoor air are
accompanied for both indoor and outdoor sources (Lu
et al., 2011). The indoor concentrations of the higher
molecular weight PAHs (five rings and larger) are
dominated by outdoor sources (Naumova et al., 2002;
Delgado-Saborit et al., 2011).
Figure (8): Percentage of LMW, MMW and HMW PAH compounds in indoor air of sites under investigation.
Percentage of the Total Carcinogenic Compounds to
the ∑PAH16 in Indoor Air: Figure (9) shows that the
maximum percentages of the total carcinogenic
compounds to the ∑PAH16 were during spring
season at almost all sites under investigation, except
for site 1 , which had the maximum percentages of
the total carcinogenic compounds to the ∑ PAH16
during summer season.
The highest annual percentage of the total
carcinogenic compounds to the ∑ PAH16 was at site
3 reaching 40.4% of the total concentration of PAHs,
while, the minimum annual percentage of the total
carcinogenic compounds to the ∑ PAH16 was at site
1 reaching 32.2% of the total concentration of PAHs.
The annual average concentrations of the total
carcinogenic compounds in indoor air were 328.96,
229.39, 420.46 and 316.08 ng/m3 at sites 1, 2, 3 and
4, respectively. The average annual concentration of
the total carcinogenic compounds in indoor air of all
sites was 323.72 ng/m3, this concentration is much
higher than the concentration (0.77 ng/m3) reported
by Delgado-Saborit et al. (2011).
Benz[a]pyrene Carcinogenic Fraction of PAHs in
Indoor Air: B[a]P was considered the primary
representative and was regarded by the World Health
Organization (WHO) as a good index for the whole
PAHs carcinogenicity (Shi et al., 2010).
In the present study, the annual mean concentrations
of B[a]P in indoor air were 141.9 ng/m3 at site 1,
43
16.02 ng/m3 at site 2, 59.71 at site 3 and 62.4 at site
4. Higher B[a]P at site 1 may be attributed to the
presence of smoker at this home. Fromme et al.
(2004) and Harrison et al. (2009) reported that homes
in industrialized countries with ETS presented higher
B[a]P levels than homes without the presence of ETS
(0.01–0.58 ng/m3).
Figure (9): Seasonal and annual percentage of the total carcinogenic compounds in indoor air of sites under investigation.
The mean annual concentration of B[a]P in all homes was 70 ng/m3. The value of B[a]P recorded for Egyptian
homes were much higher than concentration found in many studies for B[a]P in the indoor air of many
countries such as the mean concentration value of 3.73 ng/m3 reported by Delgado-Saborit et al. (2011) in the
indoor environments; and 0.01–0.65 ng/m3 recorded for European homes (Fischer et al., 2000; Fromme et al.,
2004; Gustafson et al., 2008; Harrison et al., 2009); it is also higher 0.21–3.4 ng/m3 recorded in Asian urban
homes (Li and Ro, 2000; Chao et al., 2002).
The annual mean concentration of B[a]P in the present study exceeds the Ambient Air Quality Standards
(AAQS) set for B[a]P in many countries. Such as the upper limit (2.5ng/m3) of the Chinese AAQS, and the
annual standard (1.0ng/m3) (Delgado-Saborit et al., 2011), and the value of 0.25 ng/m3 set by the UK air
quality standard (EPAQS, 1999).
BAP-equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE): Table (4) shows the annual means of B[a]P -equivalent
carcinogenic power (BAPE) and ∑ PAH16 Carcinogenic concentrations at indoor air of the selected houses.
From this table, it is clear that, the highest BAPE value was found at site 1, while the minimum BAPE value
44
was found at site 2. B[a]P -equivalent carcinogenic
power (BAPE) were 193.04, 92.91, 145.91 and
106.47 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Indoor
BAP-equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in this
study is much higher than those reported by Ohura et
al. (2004b) in Shizuoka (Japan), Chang et al. (2006)
in urban of Taiwan, Tuntawiroon et al. (2007) in
Thailand, Akyuz and Cabuk (2008) in Turkey, Ras et
al. (2009) in Tarragona (Spain) and by Delgado-
Saborit et al. (2011). Relation between PAHs
Concentrations (I/O Ratio) in Indoor and Outdoor:
The average ratios of indoor/outdoor PAHs
concentrations are given in table (5), and the
comparison between indoor and outdoor PAHs
annual mean concentrations at sites under
investigation are shown in figure (10).
Table (4): Annual means of total carcinogenic PAH concentration (ng/m3) and B[a]P - equivalent carcinogenic
power (BAPE) in indoor air of the investigated sites.
Site ∑ PAH Carcinogenic BAPE
Site 1 328.96 193.04
Site 2 229.39 92.91
Site 3 420.46 145.91
Site 4 316.08 106.47
Table (5): Ratio between indoor and outdoor (I/O ratio) PAHs annual mean concentrations at sites under
investigation
I/O ratio for
PAHs
PAHs
Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4
NAP 1.54* 2.63* 0.93 0.99
ACY 1.98* 0.28 1.06* 3.86*
ACE 1.20* 0.74 1.15* 1.27*
FLU 1.49* 0.34 0.46 4.95*
PHE 4.06* 0.67 0.47 2.30*
ANT 0.31 3.22* 0.99 1.86*
FLT 3.45* 0.27 0.84 11.79*
PYR 4.61* 0.65 0.20 92.20*
BAA 3.44* 0.58 0.62 0.81
CRY 1.51* 0.49 0.71 0.72
BBF 0.18 0.15 2.57* 524.73*
BKF 0.88 0.26 0.13 3.38*
BAP 2.75* 0.41 1.37* 12.44*
DBA 1.24* 17.01* 4.41* 1.21*
BGP 2.82* 0.22 3.29* 1.55*
IND 0.20 2.41* 0.32 1.11*
Mean 1.35* 0.75 1.24* 2.11*
*> I/O is more than 1
45
Figure (10): Comparison between indoor and outdoor PAHs annual mean concentrations at sites under investigation.
From table (5) it can be observed that I/O ratio for
low-molecular-weight PAHs (two and three rings)
are usually higher than 1 at all sites under
investigation (except for site 2) which means that the
concentrations of low-molecular-weight PAHs (two
and three rings) are usually higher indoor air than
outdoor one due to sources inside the building.
I/O concentration ratios for MML such as FLT and
PYR were higher than 3 at sites 1 and 4, while I/O
ratios for BAA and CRY were higher than 3 and 1,
respectively, at site 1. This confirms that indoor air of
homes is highly influenced by local indoor sources
such as generally tobacco smoking, heating or
cooking sources (Vanrooij et al., 1994; Naumova et
al., 2002).
Some HMW I/O concentration ratios were observed
to be more than 1, such as BBF and IND at sites 2
and 4, BKF at site 4, DBA at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4 and
BGP at sites 1, 3 and 4.
The I/O concentration ratios of BAP ranged from
0.41 at site 2 to 12.44 at site 4.
This variety in I/O concentration ratios across
different homes suggesting that ratios are affected by
variables such as differences in combustion sources
and heating systems, climatic conditions and
ventilation habits (Chao et al., 2002)..
From table (5) and figure (10) it can be noticed that
the I/O annual mean concentration ratios for ∑PAHs
were higher than 1 at sites under investigation except
at site 2 (1.35, 1.24 and 2.11 at sites 1, 3 and 4,
respectively).
CONCLUSIONS
The concentration of 16PAHs in particulate matter of
both indoor and outdoor air of Helwan city (south
Cairo, Egypt) were measured simultaneously. The
annual mean concentration of ∑PAHs (the
summation of 16 PAHs) over Helwan city was
708.9ng/m3 while in the indoor air it ranged from
694.7ng/m3 at site 2 to 1038.7 ng/m3 at site 3. The
average annual mean concentration of B[a]P over
46
Helwan city was 34.8ng/m3. The mean annual
concentration of B[a]P in all homes was 70 ng/m3.
B[a]P -equivalent carcinogenic power (BAPE) in
outdoor air were 99.96, 162.31, 71.1 and 36.75 at
sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. On the other hand , in
indoor air were 193.04, 92.91, 145.91 and 106.47 at
sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively.
The most abundant PAHs in ambient and indoor air
during the period of study were LMW (2 and 3rings)
at all sites except site 2 which had higher
concentration of MMW (4 and 5 rings). This may be
attributed to the presence of heavy traffic near this
site.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the National
Research Centre, Egypt, and the Air Pollution
Department for the opportunity and support to carry
out this research.
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