Pollution characteristics and health risk assessment of benzene homologues in ambient air in the northeastern urban area of Beijing, China

• Published in: Journal of environmental sciences (China) Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 214 - 223
• Main Authors: Li, Lei, Li, Hong, Zhang, Xinmin, Wang, Li, Xu, Linghong, Wang, Xuezhong, Yu, Yanting, Zhang, Yujie, Cao, Guan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 2014
• Subjects: air; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollutants - toxicity; ambient levels; at-risk population; Benzene; Benzene Derivatives - analysis; Benzene Derivatives - toxicity; benzene homologues; BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene); Cancer; China; Cities; cold; control methods; ethylbenzene; Health; health risk; Homology; Humans; neoplasms; paints; pollution; Risk; Risk Assessment; solvents; sources; styrene; Styrene - analysis; Styrene - toxicity; toluene; Urban areas; volatilization; xylene; 东北; 中国城市; 健康风险评估; 北京; 城市区域; 污染特征; 环境空气; 苯系物; China; benzene homologues; health risk; ambient levels; sources
• ISSN: 1001-0742; 1878-7320
• DOI: 10.1016/S1001-0742(13)60400-3

Ambient benzene homologues were measured at a site in the northeastern urban area of Beijing, China, from August 24 to September 4, 2012 by SUMMA canister sampling followed by laboratory determination using cryogenic cold trap pre-concentration-GC-MS/FID, and their health risks were also assessed. Daily total benzene homologues ranged from 0.99 to 49.71 μg/m3 with an average of 11.98 μg/m3. Benzene homologues showed higher concentrations in the morning and evening than that at noontime. Comparison with previous studies revealed a trend of decrease for ambient benzene homologues probably due to the effective emission control in Beijing in recent years. Vehicular exhaust was the main source while volatilization of paints and solvents also made substantial contributions. Health risk assessment showed that BTEX （benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m-xylene and p-xylene） and styrene had no appreciable adverse non-cancer health risks for the exposed population, while benzene has potential cancer risk of 1.34E-05. Available data from cities in China all implied that benzene imposes relatively higher cancer risk on the exposed populations and therefore strict control measures should be taken to further lower ambient benzene levels in China.