Inhalation exposure of traffic police officers to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during the winter in Beijing, China

This study concerns the use of personal samplers to evaluate the exposure of traffic police to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during the winter of 2005 in Beijing. We measured the samples collected for gas and particulate phases PAHs with the same technique used for an earlier study during the summer of 2004, and evaluated exposure risk based on the calculated benzo(a)pyrene equivalent concentrations (BaPeq) of both summer and winter. Themean exposure concentrations of gaseous and particulate phase PAHs in the winter are 4300±2900 ng/m3 and 750±1000 ng/m3, respectively, significantly higher than those measured simultaneously at control sites and also considerably higher than the values measured during the summer. The exposure PAH profiles for police and the control subjects are similar with predominant naphthalene in gaseous phase and dominant fluoranthene, pyrene, anthracene and naphthalene in particulate phase. Large daily variations occur both in summer and winter, because of the changes in the weather conditions especially wind speed and relative humiditywhich tend to disperse and scavenge PAHs in air. In the winter, the average BaPeq value for traffic police is 82.1 ng/m3,which is significantly higher than those for the control subjects and the national standard of 10 ng/m3 for ambient air. Particulate phase PAHs contribute more than 90% of the total exposure risk in the winter. Annually, weighted-average probabilities of exceeding the national standard (10 ng/m3) are 69.3% and 20.6% for the police and the controls, respectively.