Contribution of traffic and tobacco smoke in the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on outdoor and indoor PM2.5

摘要

Traffic emissions and tobacco smoke are considered two main sources of polycyclic aromatichydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor and outdoor air. In this study, the impact of these sources onthe level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and on the distribution of 15 PAHs regarded aspriority pollutants by the US-EPA on PM2.5 were evaluated and compared.Outdoor and indoor PM2.5 samples were collected during winter 2008 in Oporto city inPortugal, for sampling periods of 12 and 24 hours, respectively. The outdoor PM2.5 weresampled at one site directly influenced by traffic emissions and the indoor PM2.5 samples werecollected at one home directly influenced by tobacco smoke and another one without smoke.A methodology based on microwave-assisted extraction and liquid chromatography withfluorescence detection was applied for the efficient PAHs determination in indoor and outdoorPM2.5.PAHs in indoor PM2.5 concentrations were significantly influenced by the presence of trafficand tobacco smoking emissions. The mean of ΣPAHs in the outdoor traffic PM2.5 was notsignificantly different from the value attained in the indoor without smoking site.The tobacco smoke increased significantly PAHs concentrations on average about 1000times more, when compared with the outdoor profile samples suggesting that tobaccosmoking may be the most important source of indoor PAHs pollution.