Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, CONICET and Chemistry Department, FCEFyN, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Av. Velez Sarsfield, 1611, X5016 GCA Cordoba, Argentina.
LEPABE-Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
Sci Total Environ. 2018 Mar 15;618:93-100. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.295. Epub 2017 Nov 8.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are some of the most studied organic compounds in urban environments, due to their known adverse effects on human health and persistence in environmental matrices. During the last decade, new groups of organic compounds with an intensive use worldwide such as synthetic musks have been raising the interest of the scientific community given their toxicity and health effects. However, literature is still scarce in studies dealing with their concentration in the environment, especially in developing countries, where they are even more rare or non-existing at all. We employed leaves of Ligustrum lucidum to assess the concentrations of PAHs and synthetic musks in different land use areas in Cordoba city, therefore contributing with environmental information in Argentina. We found higher levels of PAHs in urban and industrial areas than in the peri-urban sampling sites, naphthalene being one of the dominant PAHs in all sampling areas. Regarding synthetic musk fragrances, polycyclic musks were the most contributing compounds and the highest levels found in industrial areas as well. A high environmental risk could be expected due to the frequent occurrence of galaxolide in addition to the high hazardous potential of phantolide, which was present in 50% of the samples. The results of the present study indicate that leaves of an urban ubiquitous tree can be used to assess the spatial behavior of both "classic" and "emerging" organic pollutants, allowing an assessment of urban air quality in areas where common air sampling devices are unavailable.
多环芳烃（PAHs）是城市环境中研究最多的有机化合物之一，因为它们对人类健康有已知的不良影响，并且在环境基质中持久存在。在过去的十年中，具有广泛用途的新一类有机化合物，如合成麝香，由于其毒性和对健康的影响，引起了科学界的兴趣。然而，关于它们在环境中的浓度的研究文献仍然很少，特别是在发展中国家，这些化合物甚至更为罕见或根本不存在。我们使用女贞叶来评估科尔多瓦市不同土地利用区的 PAHs 和合成麝香的浓度，因此为阿根廷的环境信息做出了贡献。我们发现，城市和工业区的 PAHs 浓度高于城市周边采样点，所有采样区均以萘为主要 PAHs 之一。关于合成麝香香料，多环麝香是最主要的贡献化合物，在工业区也发现了最高的浓度。由于加乐麝香在所有样本中出现了 50%，加之磷苯甲酮的危害性高，因此可能会出现高环境风险。本研究结果表明，城市中无处不在的树木的叶子可以用来评估“经典”和“新兴”有机污染物的空间行为，从而可以在没有常见空气采样设备的情况下评估城市空气质量。
