Pollution characteristics and cancer risk of PAHs in a petrochemical industrial city: Insights from passive air sampling and three-dimensional dispersion modeling

Abstract

In industrial cities, identifying sources and assessing the risks of hazardous air pollutants are critical for protecting public health. This study employed passive air samplers (PASs) to analyze 13 PAHs at 15 sites in Daesan, a petrochemical industrial city in South Korea, during the warm season. The mean Sigma 13 PAH concentration was 8.1 +/- 6.2 ng/m3, comparable to levels observed in other industrial cities. Elevated PAH concentrations and cancer risks were observed in the industrial and central areas of Daesan, primarily influenced by emissions from industrial stacks, as confirmed by 3D air dispersion modeling. Although the lifetime cancer risk of PAHs (2.11 x 10- 10-3.41 x 10- 7) remained within the US EPA's acceptable range, cancer risk maps highlighted a strong association between industrial emissions and cancer risk, especially for high-percentile exposure groups. This study highlights the combined effects of local industrial and vehicle emissions on air quality and cancer risk. Our findings demonstrate that integrating PASs with 3D dispersion modeling and percentile-based risk assessment provides a novel framework for identifying residential exposure and major emission sources. This approach effectively reveals elevated risks for vulnerable subpopulations, often hidden in conventional average-risk esti-mates, providing a valuable basis for future health impact assessments.