Research Description
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to their detrimental threat to human life, widespread existence in food chains and incremental lifetime cancer risk are of great concern around the globe. Ensuing their carcinogenic, genotoxic, and mutagenic effects, this paper reviews the status of PAHs pollution in air, sediment, soil and water of different world regions and food chains. Besides this, the review will also summarize the data available on the content of PAHs in various food types and effects of PAHs intake on human health along with some preventive measures. The result showed that the overall concentration of PAHs ranged from 0- 3842 ng.m-3 in air, 0- 205398.76 ng. L-1 in water and 0-233320 ng. g-1 in sediment while agriculture soil possesses lower concentration of PAHs than urban soil. Moreover, higher content of PAHs in air, water and sediment have found in Asia, Middle East, and Africa, respectively. At the end, discussion will be extended to describe some recommendations to reduce emission rate of PAHs around the world.
