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Long-term spatiotemporal variation and lung cancer risk of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Yangtze River Delta, China

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Abstract

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD), which is the most developed region in China, suffers from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) pollution. However, the long-term spatiotemporal variation of atmospheric PAHs and the lung cancer risk caused by PAH exposure in the YRD remain unclear. Herein, we simulated the daily atmospheric concentration of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP, the most carcinogenic PAH) from 2001 to 2016 using an atmospheric transport model. During this period, the atmospheric BaP concentration showed a general trend of first increasing and then decreasing (average BaP concentration = 0.50 ± 0.12 ng/m3) and was highest in 2005 (0.72 ng/m3). Moreover, the BaP concentration in Jiangsu and Shanghai was 5.17- and 4.98-fold higher than that in Zhejiang. BaP pollution was severe in Jiangsu during the winter. The average area proportion of BaP exceeding the national standard in winter in Jiangsu was 69.09%. The population-weighted incremental lifetime cancer risk from 2001 to 2016 ranged 6.67 × 10–6–1.50 × 10–5, and the excess lung cancer cases ranged 1054–2130. Compared with 2005, excess lung cancer cases in the YRD decreased by 49.49% in 2016. Reducing BaP pollution in winter in Jiangsu is crucial for reducing lung cancer risk in the YRD.

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Data availability

The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2020YFA0607803], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [42007381 and 42107385], and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK20200812 and BK20200515].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Teng Wang

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Baojie Li, Yang Yang & Hong Liao

  3. Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Tao Huang & Wanyanhan Jiang

  4. School of Public Health, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 611137, China

    Wanyanhan Jiang

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  1. Teng Wang
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  2. Baojie Li
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  3. Tao Huang
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  4. Wanyanhan Jiang
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Contributions

TW contributed to conceptualization, investigation, methodology, and writing—original draft. BL and HL were involved in conceptualization and methodology. TH contributed to methodology, data curation, and software. WJ contributed to data curation and software. YY investigated the study.

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Correspondence to Baojie Li.

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Wang, T., Li, B., Huang, T. et al. Long-term spatiotemporal variation and lung cancer risk of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Environ Geochem Health 45, 1429–1443 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01271-3

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