Assessing and predicting the exposures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their carcinogenic potencies from vehicle engine exhausts to highway toll station workers

Perng Jy Tsai, Tung Sheng Shih, Hsiao Lung Chen, Wen Jhy Lee, Ching Huang Lai, Saou Hsing Liou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

238 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The objective of this study was set out to assess the exposure levels of both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their corresponding carcinogenic potencies for highway toll station workers associated with vehicle emissions. We collected 48, 35, and 33 personal PAH samples from booth attendants of the dayshift (08:00AM-16:00PM), nightshift (16:00PM-00:00AM), and late-nightshift (00:00AM-08:00AM), respectively. We found no significant difference in PAH homologue distributions among the workers' exposure profiles of the three work shifts. Both total-PAH and total-BaPeq exposure levels for dayshift workers (=12,300 and 230ng/m3, respectively) were not significantly different from that for nightshift workers (=11,500 and 203ng/m3, respectively), but both were significantly higher than that for late-nightshift workers (=8280 and 151ng/m3, respectively). We conducted multivariate linear regression analyses to relate booth attendants' exposure levels to the involved vehicle flow rates and environmental factors. We found none of the three environmental factors (i.e., wind speed, humidity and air temperature) was significant. On the other hand, we found the vehicle flow rate was able to explain 76% and 62% variations of booth attendants' total-PAH and total-BaPeq exposures, respectively. Considering measuring vehicle flow rate is much less labor consuming and costly than direct measuring PAHs, the above regression results can be regarded, at least, as a useful indirect approach for estimating the booth attendants' exposure levels.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)333-343
Number of pages11
JournalAtmospheric Environment
Volume38
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004 Jan

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Environmental Science
  • Atmospheric Science

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