Evaluation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Using Analytical Methods, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment Research: Seafood Safety after a Petroleum Spill as an Example
Background: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are abundant and widespread environmental chemicals. They are produced naturally and through man-made processes, and they are common in organic media, including petroleum. Several PAHs are toxic, and a subset exhibit carcinogenic activity. PAHs represent a range of chemical structures based on two or more benzene rings and, depending on their source, can exhibit a variety of side modifications resulting from oxygenation, nitrogenation, and alkylation.
Objectives: Here we discuss the increasing ability of contemporary analytical methods to distinguish not only different chemical structures among PAHs but also their concentrations in environmental media. Using seafood contamination following the Deepwater Horizon accident as an example, we identify issues that are emerging in the PAH risk assessment process because of increasing analytical sensitivity for individual PAHs, and we describe the paucity of toxicological literature for many of these compounds.
Discussion: PAHs, including the large variety of chemically modified or substituted PAHs, are naturally occurring and may constitute health risks if human populations are exposed to hazardous levels. However, toxicity evaluations have not kept pace with modern analytic methods and their increased ability to detect substituted PAHs. Therefore, although it is possible to measure these compounds in seafood and other media, we do not have sufficient information on the potential toxicity of these compounds to incorporate them into human health risk assessments and characterizations.
Conclusions: Future research efforts should strategically attempt to fill this toxicological knowledge gap so human health risk assessments of PAHs in environmental media or food can be better determined. This is especially important in the aftermath of petroleum spills.
1Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; 2Department of Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; 3Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA; 4Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; 5Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing, Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA; 6Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and 7Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA; 8Department of Epidemiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; 9Department of Environmental and Global Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Recommended Citation:
Jeffrey Wickliffe,1 Edward Overton,2 Scott Frickel,et al. Evaluation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Using Analytical Methods, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment Research: Seafood Safety after a Petroleum Spill as an Example[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2014-01-01,Volume 122(Issue 1):6