The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 12 No 2 (2008): 357 – 366
DISTRIBUTION
AND HEALTH RISKS OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHs) IN SMOKE AEROSOLS
FROM BURNING OF SELECTED GARDEN WASTES
Tay Joo Hui1, Tan Hock Seng1, Mhd Radzi Abas2 and Norhayati
Mohd Tahir*1
1Environmental Research Group (ERG), Department of
Chemical Sciences,
Faculty of
Science and Technology
Universiti Terengganu
2Chemistry Department, University Malaya, 50603 Kuala
Lumpur
*Corresponding author: hayati@umt.edu.my
Abstract
A study has been carried out to characterize polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons emitted from the burning of five types of typical garden wastes
viz, Bachang, Mango, Jackfruit, Jambu Air
litter fall and a type of Grass. The samples were burned to the ember and
respective smoke aerosols emitted during the burning period were sampled using
high volume filtration on a pre-cleaned glass fibre filters. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were
extracted using dichloromethane-methanol
(3:1) as solvent and the extracts fractionated on silica-alumina column. Detection and quantification of PAHs
compounds were carried out using GC-MS.
Results indicated that burning resulted in the formation of significant
amount of PAHs compounds in all samples; total PAHs compounds emitted were in
the range of 0.41 to 42.2 µg/m3.
The major PAHs compound exhibited in all smoke samples were three to
four rings PAHs (e.g. fluoranthene and pyrene) with lesser amount of five to
six rings (e.g. benzo(a)pyrene and benzo(g,h,i) perylene) and two rings PAHs
(e.g. acenaphthylene). The BaP equivalency
results showed that the potential health risk from these garden wastes smoke
were very significant; total BaP equivalency values were in the range of 5.60
E+04 pg/m3 – 4.98 E+06 pg/m3 with Jambu Air smoke
exhibited the highest potential health risk.
Keywords:
smoke aerosols, biomass burning, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
environmental health risks, toxic equivalency factors.
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