Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk
Atmospheric pollution from organic matter burning poses health risks to humans across the globe, making it crucial to assess and regulate such pollution’s sources. One class of atmospheric pollutants, toxic, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are globally ubiquitous chemicals of i...
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2023
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/150046 2023-06-11T04:08:03+02:00 Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk Trivedi, Disha Selin, Noelle Eckley Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society 2023-03-06T21:53:10.981Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150046 unknown Massachusetts Institute of Technology https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150046 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ Thesis 2023 ftmit 2023-05-29T08:19:50Z Atmospheric pollution from organic matter burning poses health risks to humans across the globe, making it crucial to assess and regulate such pollution’s sources. One class of atmospheric pollutants, toxic, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are globally ubiquitous chemicals of interest to domestic and international policy decision-makers. Previous studies of PAHs use a single carcinogenic PAH, benzo[a]pyrene, to perform policy-relevant analyses of PAH sources and health effects. However, a new study from Kelly et al., (2021) suggests that BAP may not represent pollution and health effects of other carcinogenic PAHs and their degradation products. Kelly et al.’s findings suggest that previous BAP-based analyses may not capture the PAH emissions sources responsible for PAH concentrations and cancer risk in policy-relevant regions. This thesis uses Kelly et al.’s extended version of the global, three-dimensional GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model to simulate concentrations of BAP and of 48 PAHs and degradation products in three policy-relevant regions: the Arctic Circle, the continental United States, and East Asia. This thesis performs source receptor analysis by simulating BAP (“the BAP simulation”) and simulating 48 PAHs (“the 48-PAH simulation”). In the Arctic, simulating 48 PAHs demonstrates that outside-Arctic sources, primarily from sub-Arctic Russia and continental Europe, contribute a higher percentage of Arctic PAH pollution and cancer risk than simulating BAP alone attributes. However, a high percentage of Arctic PAH concentrations come from within-Arctic sources in the BAP simulation and the 48-PAH simulation. In the United States, simulating 48 PAHs identifies single-digit contributions from outside-US sources, predominantly from sub-Arctic Canada and the Arctic, that are missed when simulating BAP alone. Geospatial mapping of these simulations indicates that Arctic wildfire emissions are likely responsible these sub-Arctic Canadian and Arctic contributions to US PAHs as well as ... Thesis Arctic DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Arctic Canada |
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Atmospheric pollution from organic matter burning poses health risks to humans across the globe, making it crucial to assess and regulate such pollution’s sources. One class of atmospheric pollutants, toxic, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are globally ubiquitous chemicals of interest to domestic and international policy decision-makers. Previous studies of PAHs use a single carcinogenic PAH, benzo[a]pyrene, to perform policy-relevant analyses of PAH sources and health effects. However, a new study from Kelly et al., (2021) suggests that BAP may not represent pollution and health effects of other carcinogenic PAHs and their degradation products. Kelly et al.’s findings suggest that previous BAP-based analyses may not capture the PAH emissions sources responsible for PAH concentrations and cancer risk in policy-relevant regions. This thesis uses Kelly et al.’s extended version of the global, three-dimensional GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model to simulate concentrations of BAP and of 48 PAHs and degradation products in three policy-relevant regions: the Arctic Circle, the continental United States, and East Asia. This thesis performs source receptor analysis by simulating BAP (“the BAP simulation”) and simulating 48 PAHs (“the 48-PAH simulation”). In the Arctic, simulating 48 PAHs demonstrates that outside-Arctic sources, primarily from sub-Arctic Russia and continental Europe, contribute a higher percentage of Arctic PAH pollution and cancer risk than simulating BAP alone attributes. However, a high percentage of Arctic PAH concentrations come from within-Arctic sources in the BAP simulation and the 48-PAH simulation. In the United States, simulating 48 PAHs identifies single-digit contributions from outside-US sources, predominantly from sub-Arctic Canada and the Arctic, that are missed when simulating BAP alone. Geospatial mapping of these simulations indicates that Arctic wildfire emissions are likely responsible these sub-Arctic Canadian and Arctic contributions to US PAHs as well as ... |
author2 |
Selin, Noelle Eckley Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Trivedi, Disha |
spellingShingle |
Trivedi, Disha Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
author_facet |
Trivedi, Disha |
author_sort |
Trivedi, Disha |
title |
Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
title_short |
Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
title_full |
Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
title_fullStr |
Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing Regional Sources of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution and Associated Human Cancer Risk |
title_sort |
assessing regional sources of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollution and associated human cancer risk |
publisher |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150046 |
geographic |
Arctic Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150046 |
op_rights |
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ |
_version_ |
1768381169130274816 |