Alberta oil sands development

摘要

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a ubiquitous class of hundreds of organic compounds composed of two or more aromatic rings that are released naturally and from human activities. Natural sources of PAHs include forest fires, oil seeps, and volcanic eruptions; anthropogenic sources include burning of fossil fuels and wood, production of coke and charcoal, petroleum refining, and petroleum spills (1). The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has ranked PAHs eighth on their list of hazardous substances (2). In this issue of PNAS, Kelly et al. (3) demonstrate that the exploitation of the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, releases PAHs into terrestrial and aquatic environments. To estimate the potential of these PAHs to cause harm, this information can be incorporated into an exposure assessment and combined with dose-response information to form a risk assessment.