Doctoral Dissertation
Chemical and bioanalytical
characterisation of
PAH-contaminated soils
- identification, availability and
mixture toxicity of AhR agonists
Maria Larsson
Chemistry
Örebro Studies in Chemistry 13 I
ÖREBRO 2013ÖREBRO STUDIES IN CHEMISTRY 13 2013
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maria larsson has been a postgraduate student in chemistry at the Man-Technology-Environment (MTM) Research Centre, Örebro University, where the work of her Ph.D. thesis was performed.
Contaminated soils are a worldwide problem, as a result of the industriali-sation. Many of those soils now pose a large risk to human health and the environment. Polycyclic aromatic compounds are well known contaminants in urban- and industrial soils. Because of their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties, PAH-contaminated sites are highly prioritised for remediation. Risk assessments of PAHs in contaminated soils are usually based on chemical analysis of a small number of individual PAHs, which only constitute a small part of the complex cocktail of hundreds of PAHs and other related polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in the soils. In the work underlying this thesis, analysis of PAH-contaminated soils with focus on chemical composition, availability, and mixture toxicity has been performed by use of a chemical and bioanalytical approach. Results showed that not only PAHs but also other polycyclic aromatic compounds, like oxy-PAHs, oxy-methylated PAHs and azaarenes should be considered in risk assessment and during remediation of PAH-contaminated soils. These compounds were detected in remediated soils and PAHs, azaarenes and oxy-methylated PAHs were shown to be po-tent AhR agonists. Comparison of bioassay derived data with chemical data showed the risk of missing potentially toxic chemicals not targeted by the chemical analysis, since all remediated PAH-contaminated soils contained a large fraction of AhR-active compounds that could not be explained by chemical analysis of the soils. Further chemical identification and biological studies are necessary to determine whether these unknown substances pose a risk to human health or the environment.
issn 1651-4270 isbn 978-91-7668-961-5
