Abstract—Sugar cane industry signifies a very important income for the Mexican economy; nevertheless, the inadequate agricultural practices, promote the emission of tons of atmospheric particles (PM). In order to have a better understanding about the toxics contained in the particle emission from sugarcane burning, two sampling campaigns to collect fine particles (PM 2.5 ) and respirable particles (PM 10 ) during and after the harvest season, were performed in the municipality of Córdoba, Veracruz, México, a small city next to many sugarcane crops. Results showed that particles concentrations increased around 41% for PM 10 and 32% for PM 2.5 , whereas black carbon concentrations increased 25% and 28% respectively. The high PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio of 0.7during harvest shows that most of the particles and toxic are contained in the fine fraction, in addition, the sum of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) was around 50% of total PAHs, with a BAPeq of 996 pg m -3 during harvesting; these results represents an important risk for the neighboring population, consequently authorities and decision makers should attend and implement control strategies. Index Terms—Sugarcane burning, PM 2.5 , black carbon, PAHs. I. INTRODUCTION During 2013, 780,000 ha of crops were harvested in México, producing 61 millions of tons of sugarcane yielding 78.7 ton ha -1 [1].The sugarcane growing is carried out in 15 states, where Veracruz contributes to 36% of National production [2]. The harvest season of sugarcane lasts between 5 to six months, and during this time, tons of pollutants are emitted to the atmosphere due to burning of biomass which facilitate the work of farmers reducing weeds and moving away insects and snakes; in addition after harvesting, wastes are burned in order to prepare the land for the next planting [3]. Among the most important emitted pollutants during sugarcane burning, particles are of concern since, on one hand they include toxic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are semi-volatile species formed by the fusion of two or more benzene rings through a pyrolytic process during incomplete combustion of organic materials [4]. PAHs have a significant importance in the mutagenic activity of atmospheric particles and some of them Manuscript received March 20, 2015; revised June 16, 2015. This work was supported by the CONACYT under Project 181231 and by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco. The authors are with the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco, México (e-mail: vma@correo.azc.uam.mx, trm@correo.azc.uam.mx, lnf@correo.azc.uam.mx). have been classified as carcinogenic, such as benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, dibenzo[a, h]anthracenebenzo[b]fluorantene, benzo[k]fluorantene, and indene[1,2,3-cd]pyrene [5]. On the other hand, the emitted particles contain black carbon which is a known short-lived climate forcer which contributes to global warming; further black carbon has been associated to 2 million of premature deaths, due to inhalation from domestic cooking [6]. Studies in Brazil reported high correlation between sugarcane burning season and the intensification of admission of children to the hospital because of respiratory illness [7], [8]. Information about the environmental sugarcane burning is scarce and is related mainly to researches in Brazil and Colombia [9]-[11]. In México, only was found one study related to this issue, which concluded that people living next to sugarcane crops have more frequent respiratory illness who In this paper, two sampling campaigns were carried out close to the sugarcane to compare the concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 during harvest and no-harvest season; in addition the quantification of the levels of black carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contained in particles was performed to determine the occurrence of toxic species. II. METHODOLOGY A. Sampling Sampling site is located in the municipality of Córdoba, Veracruz (18° 53’ N; 96° 56’ W) which is located at 860 m above sea level, in the most important sugarcane zone in Veracruz State which comprises 9 sugar mills and around 200,000 inhabitants. Fig. 1. Study site: Córdoba in the State of Veracruz in México. The weather is warm-humid with an average temperature of 19.9°C, ranging from 6 °C to 35°. Fig. 1 shows the location as well as the wind rose during harvest season. Collection of fine particles (PM 2.5 ) and respirable particles (PM 10 ) were performed using 20 x 25 cmWhatman quartz fiber filters, previously calcined at 550 °C to remove organic Black Carbon and Particulate Organic Toxics Emitted by Sugarcane Burning in Veracruz, México International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2016 290 DOI: 10.7763/IJESD.2016.V7.786 Violeta Mugica-Álvarez, Sandra Ramos-Guízar, Naxieli Santiago-de la Rosa, Miguel Torres-Rodríguez, and Luis Noreña-Franco those in other sites of the State of Puebla [12].