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Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Name
2021GH000401.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.23 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
534b8ce004a17bdfcb4334f90349c362
Author(s)
Kelly, Jamie M
Ivatt, Peter D
Evans, Mathew J
Kroll, Jesse H
Hrdina, Amy IH
Kohale, Ishwar N
White, Forest M
Engelward, Bevin P
Selin, Noelle E
Date Issued
2021
Journal
GeoHealth
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Kelly, Jamie M, Ivatt, Peter D, Evans, Mathew J, Kroll, Jesse H, Hrdina, Amy IH et al. 2021. "Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons." GeoHealth, 5 (9).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In assessments of cancer risk from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), scientists and regulators rarely consider the complex mixture of emitted compounds and degradation products, and they often represent the entire mixture using a single emitted compound-benzo[a]pyrene. Here, we show that benzo[a]pyrene is a poor indicator of PAH risk distribution and management: nearly 90% of cancer risk worldwide results from other PAHs, including unregulated degradation products of emitted PAHs. We develop and apply a global-scale atmospheric model and conduct health impact analyses to estimate human cancer risk from 16 PAHs and several of their N-PAH degradation products. We find that benzo[a]pyrene is a minor contributor to the total cancer risks of PAHs (11%); the remaining risk comes from other directly emitted PAHs (72%) and N-PAHs (17%). We show that assessment and policy-making that relies solely on benzo[a]pyrene exposure provides misleading estimates of risk distribution, the importance of chemical processes, and the prospects for risk mitigation. We conclude that researchers and decision-makers should consider additional PAHs as well as degradation products.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.1029/2021GH000401
