Impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the environment and human health: evidence retrieved from biomonitoring studies

The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in different environmental matrices has significant repercussions on ecosystems and human health. There is a need to reunite and revise the available literature to improve the evaluation of the impact of PAHs on the environment and human health. This work compiles, for the first time, the concentrations of PAHs in the air, aquatic ecosystems, and soils, with a global overview of the results from environmental and human biomonitoring studies. The higher incidence of anthropogenic occupancy is directly associated with the presence of PAHs in the environmental matrices (1344.4 – 12300 ng/m3 versus 0.03-0.60 ng/m3 in the air in industrial/urban and rural areas, respectively; 2.00 – 1.66 × 107 ng/L and 7.00 × 10-4 – 1.00× 109 ng/g in the water systems and aquatic sediments from coastal areas, respectively; 0.14 – 1.77 × 106 ng/g and 1.59 – 5.87 × 103 ng/g in urban and rural soils, respectively). Benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogenic PAH, was found in all the environmental matrices. The potential of some sentinel species (e.g., mosses, lichens, tree leaves, bivalves, and cephalopods) used as biomonitors in environmental biomonitoring studies is described. Despite the growing concern about the negative impacts of PAH exposure, more biomonitoring studies are crucial to characterize the impact of PAHs on the environment and human health and estimate the associated risks for wildlife and humans. Mitigation and preventive measures for PAH exposure can be beneficial to protect human health due to the improvement in the human–animal–environment interface.

Funding: This work was funded by project PCIF/SSO/0090/2019 by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (FCT-MCTES) through national funds.

Acknowledgements: This work received support from UIDB/50006/2020, UIDP/50006/2020, LA/P/0008/2020, 2022.05381.PTDC, and PCIF/SSO/0017/2018 by FCT-MCTES. M. Oliveira thanks to the scientific contract CEEC – Individual 2017 Program Contract CEECIND/03666/2017.