Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Air Pollution Generated From Human Activity And Its Human Health Impact In China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are commonly believed to cause human cancers and frequently detected in surface water, sediments, soils, and plants. With the acceleration of urbanization and industrialization in China, the emission of PAHs in air are gradually increasing. To find the relationship between PAHs air emissions and its population health outcome, to indentify the main contributor of PAHs pollution, and to provide the basic information required for PAHs pollution controlling, national PAHs air emission, human health potential impact, disease outcome, and the key factors contributing to the overall human health burden in China were indentified, and then the DAN damage seen from these key factors was further studied.Results showed that there was an increasing tendency in national PAHs air emissions and its huamn health potential impact generated from human activities during last decade. Naphthalene (35%) and Phenanthrene (15%) are the most significant pollutants to the national PAHs air emission generated from human activities. The most significant substances contributing to the overall huamn health potential impact was Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(a)anthracene, and Chrysene. Approximately6%,0.9%,4.5%, and2.27%of the national benzopyrene and benzo(a)anthracene emissions in air were generated from straw burning, transportation, coking, and electrolytic aluminum industry in China, respectively. It caused about90%,95%,88%, and93.8%of human health impact, respectively. Similarly, approximately1%,4%, and5%of total emissions of benzopyrene and diphenyl (a, h) anthracene generated from fuel wood burning, household coal consumption, and coal burning in industries caused about90%,86%and90%of overall human health impact. Conclusively, the key factors of national PAHs air pollution caused by human activities in China are Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(a)anthracene, and Chrysene. The diseases including cerebrovascular disease, cardiopathy, cancer, digestive system disease, disease of the genitourinary system, pregnancy and childbirth complications in puerperium, nervous system disease, and psychogeny has high correlations with the PAHs air pollution, and therefore increased the relevant death rate and economic losses.DAN damage analysis results showed that although the exposure in certain time and concentration in PAHs was not lethal, it caused the DNA damage. The increase of concentration and exposure time added gradually the level of DNA damage. In addition, the combination exposure of Benzo(a)pyrene and Benzo(a)anthracene increased the adverse effect to DNA damage. However, the damage was repaired partly with time passing. The expression of protein relevant to DNA damage repair increased with an increase of DNA damage and decreased with an increase of DNA repair.