Occurrence of high production volume chemicals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban sites close to industrial areas. Human exposure and risk assessment.

Evaluating the occurrence of high production volume chemicals (HPVCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the air is important because they carry a carcinogenic risk and can lead to respiratory or endocrine problems. Examples of HPVCs are organophosphate esters, benzosulfonamides, benzothiazoles, phthalate esters (PAEs), phenolic antioxidants and ultraviolet stabilizers. In this paper we develop a multi-residue method for determining HPVCs and PAHs in air samples via pressurized liquid extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Air samples were collected by active sampling with high volume samplers using quartz fiber filter for the particulate matter (PM10) and polyurethane foams for gas phase. The compounds found at the highest concentrations were PAEs, with a concentration of up to 24 ng m-3 of DEHP in gas phase and up to 109 ng m-3 of DEHA in PM10. Non-carcinogenic risk assessment results ranged from 9.7E-05 to 9.5E-03 for most of the compounds studied. On the other hand, the results for carcinogenic risk showed that PAHs made the highest contribution.