Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in atmospheric PM 1.0 of urban environments: Carcinogenic and mutagenic respiratory health risk by age groups * Dayana M. Agudelo-Casta ~ neda b , Elba C. Teixeira a, c, * , Ismael L. Schneider b , Sheila Rinc  on Lara d , Luis F.O. Silva b a Research Department, Fundaç~ ao Estadual de Proteç~ ao Ambiental Henrique Luís Roessler, Av. Borges de Medeiros, 261, Porto Alegre, RS, 90020-021, Brazil b Research Group in Environmental Management and Sustainability, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Universidad De La Costa, Calle 58 #55-66, Barranquilla, Atl antico, 080002, Colombia c Postgraduate Program in Remote Sensing and Meteorology, Geosciences Institute, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, Brazil d Clinical Research Unit, Jewish General Hospital, 3755 C^ ote-Ste-Catherine Road, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 1E2, Canada article info Article history: Received 21 December 2016 Received in revised form 20 January 2017 Accepted 28 January 2017 Available online 6 March 2017 Keywords: Atmospheric pollution PAHs Carcinogenic health risk PM 1 abstract We investigated the carcinogenic and mutagenic respiratory health risks related to the exposure to at- mospheric PAHs in an urban area. Our study focused in the association of these pollutants and their possible effect in human health, principally respiratory and circulatory diseases. Also, we determined a relationship between the inhalation risk of PAHs and meteorological conditions. We validated the hy- pothesis that in winter PAHs with high molecular weight associated to submicron particles (PM 1 ) may increase exposure risk, especially for respiratory diseases, bronchitis and pneumonia diseases. Moreover, in our study we verified the relationship between diseases and several carcinogenic PAHs (Ind, BbkF, DahA, BaP, and BghiP). These individual PAHs contributed the most to the potential risk of exposure for inhalation of PM 1.0 . Even at lower ambient concentrations of BaP and DahA in comparison with indi- vidual concentrations of other PAHs associated to PM 1.0 . Mainly, research suggests to include carcino- genic and mutagenic PAHs in future studies of environmental health risk due to their capacity to associate to PM 10 . Such carcinogenic and mutagenic PAHs are likely to provide the majority of the human exposure, since they originate from dense traffic urban areas were humans congregate. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Particulate matter (PM) is one of the major pollutants affecting Human's health, especially, PM's fine and ultrafine fraction that may absorb greater concentrations of toxic compounds like the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (Agudelo-Casta~ neda et al., 2015). PAHs are one of the most important atmospheric pollutants that are of human health concern, owing to their high carcinogenic potential and the ubiquity of their sources (Wang et al., 2013; Dabestani and Ivanov, 1999). Majorly, PAHs found in the environment come from incomplete combustion of carbonaceous materials. PAHs sources include: biomass burning, coal and petro- leum combustion, coke and metal production (Zhang and Tao, 2009). Nowadays, the emissions of these pollutants to the atmo- sphere has increased with the urban and industrial development of cities. These pollutants are widely distributed in the atmosphere. PAHs have received a particular attention for the last decades attributed to their toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties, and their persistence in the environment (Biache et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2013). As a result, 16 PAHs are listed as priority pollutants by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) established an air quality standard of 1 ng/m 3 of Benzo[a]pyrene. PM1.0's pollution source in urban ambient air is largely low- emass aerosol from motor vehicle combustion exhausts (Verma et al., 2014). These emissions contain particles were over 90% of * This paper has been recommended for acceptance by David Carpenter. * Corresponding author. Research Department, Fundaç~ ao Estadual de Proteç~ ao Ambiental Henrique Luis Roessler, Rua Borges de Medeiros 261/9 Andar, 90020-021, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. E-mail address: ecalessoteixeira@gmail.com (E.C. Teixeira). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Pollution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.01.075 0269-7491/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Environmental Pollution 224 (2017) 158e170