Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
In assessments of cancer risk from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), scientists and regulators rarely consider the complex mixture of emitted compounds and degradation products, and they often represent the entire mixture using a single emitted compound-benzo[a]pyrene. Here, we sh...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141213 |
| _version_ | 1826196496159080448 |
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| author | Kelly, Jamie M Ivatt, Peter D Evans, Mathew J Kroll, Jesse H Hrdina, Amy IH Kohale, Ishwar N White, Forest M Engelward, Bevin P Selin, Noelle E |
| author_facet | Kelly, Jamie M Ivatt, Peter D Evans, Mathew J Kroll, Jesse H Hrdina, Amy IH Kohale, Ishwar N White, Forest M Engelward, Bevin P Selin, Noelle E |
| author_sort | Kelly, Jamie M |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In assessments of cancer risk from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), scientists and regulators rarely consider the complex mixture of emitted compounds and degradation products, and they often represent the entire mixture using a single emitted compound-benzo[a]pyrene. Here, we show that benzo[a]pyrene is a poor indicator of PAH risk distribution and management: nearly 90% of cancer risk worldwide results from other PAHs, including unregulated degradation products of emitted PAHs. We develop and apply a global-scale atmospheric model and conduct health impact analyses to estimate human cancer risk from 16 PAHs and several of their N-PAH degradation products. We find that benzo[a]pyrene is a minor contributor to the total cancer risks of PAHs (11%); the remaining risk comes from other directly emitted PAHs (72%) and N-PAHs (17%). We show that assessment and policy-making that relies solely on benzo[a]pyrene exposure provides misleading estimates of risk distribution, the importance of chemical processes, and the prospects for risk mitigation. We conclude that researchers and decision-makers should consider additional PAHs as well as degradation products. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:27:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/141213 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:27:53Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1412132022-03-17T03:29:55Z Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Kelly, Jamie M Ivatt, Peter D Evans, Mathew J Kroll, Jesse H Hrdina, Amy IH Kohale, Ishwar N White, Forest M Engelward, Bevin P Selin, Noelle E In assessments of cancer risk from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), scientists and regulators rarely consider the complex mixture of emitted compounds and degradation products, and they often represent the entire mixture using a single emitted compound-benzo[a]pyrene. Here, we show that benzo[a]pyrene is a poor indicator of PAH risk distribution and management: nearly 90% of cancer risk worldwide results from other PAHs, including unregulated degradation products of emitted PAHs. We develop and apply a global-scale atmospheric model and conduct health impact analyses to estimate human cancer risk from 16 PAHs and several of their N-PAH degradation products. We find that benzo[a]pyrene is a minor contributor to the total cancer risks of PAHs (11%); the remaining risk comes from other directly emitted PAHs (72%) and N-PAHs (17%). We show that assessment and policy-making that relies solely on benzo[a]pyrene exposure provides misleading estimates of risk distribution, the importance of chemical processes, and the prospects for risk mitigation. We conclude that researchers and decision-makers should consider additional PAHs as well as degradation products. 2022-03-16T14:57:40Z 2022-03-16T14:57:40Z 2021 2022-03-16T14:54:42Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141213 Kelly, Jamie M, Ivatt, Peter D, Evans, Mathew J, Kroll, Jesse H, Hrdina, Amy IH et al. 2021. "Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons." GeoHealth, 5 (9). en 10.1029/2021GH000401 GeoHealth Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) Wiley |
| spellingShingle | Kelly, Jamie M Ivatt, Peter D Evans, Mathew J Kroll, Jesse H Hrdina, Amy IH Kohale, Ishwar N White, Forest M Engelward, Bevin P Selin, Noelle E Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title | Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title_full | Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title_fullStr | Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title_full_unstemmed | Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title_short | Global Cancer Risk From Unregulated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| title_sort | global cancer risk from unregulated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/141213 |
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