Residuals, bioaccessibility and health risk assessment of PAHs in winter wheat grains from areas influenced by coal combustion in China.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contamination in atmospheric and soil was serious, which is mainly due to high level of emission of PAHs in China resulted from the predominating use of coal in energy consumption and continuous development of economy and society for years. However, the status of PAHs in winter wheat grains from the areas influenced by coal combustion in China was still not clear. During harvest season, the winter wheat grains were collected from agricultural fields surrounding coal-fired power plants located in Shaanxi and Henan Provinces. This study found that the mean concentrations of 15 priority PAHs ranged from 69.58 to 557.0μgkg. Three-ring PAHs (acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene) were dominant in the grains, accounting for approximately 70-81% of the total PAHs. The bioaccessibility of low molecular weight (LMW, 2-3 ring) PAHs (51.1-52.8%), high molecular weight (HMW, 4-6 ring) PAHs (19.8-27.6%) and total PAHs (40.9-48.0%) in the intestinal condition was significantly (p<0.001) higher than that (37.4-38.6%; 15.6-22.5%; 30.7-35.5%) in the gastric condition, respectively. Based on total PAHs, the values of incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for children, adolescents, adults and seniors were all higher than the baseline value (10) and some even fell in the range of 10-10, which indicated that most grains from the areas affected by coal combustion possessed considerable cancer risk. The present study also indicated that the children were the age group most sensitive to PAHs contamination. The pilot research provided relevant information for the regulation of PAHs in the winter wheat grains and for the safety of the agro-products growing in the PAHs-contaminated areas.