PAHs Exposure and Health Risk in Traffic Police Assistants in Tianjin,China

Objective To measure the personal exposure dose of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for the traffic police assistants during working at road centers, and to study the incremental occupational cancer risk. Methods Personal PM10 exposed samples in traffic police assistants were collected during working in Tianjin, China, and 13 PAHs species were quantitatively analyzed by GC-MS, in the same time, the air samples were collected at the roadsides and in the campus as the control. The health risk level was calculated according to the incremental lifetime cancer risk model. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the variables that influence the risk most. Results The average level of total PAHs and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) the traffic police assistants exposed to were 867 and 26 ng/m3 respectively, which were much higher than those in the campus and at the roadsides. Risk assessment showed that the cancer risk was in the range of 10-6～10-3. On the basis of sensitivity analysis, further research should be directed to give better characterization of year-round PAHs concentration and the cancer slope factor (CSF) of BaP in order to improve the accuracy of the health risk assessment. Conclusion Attention should be paid to the incremental lifetime cancer risk of the traffic police assistants caused by PAHs exposure.