ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Garden vegetables were sampled and the concentrations of 16 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined. The average concentration of 16 PAHs in vegetables was 53.22 ng/g, with the largest concentration in water spinach (129.54 ng/g) and the lowest one in white radish (11.62 ng/g). The average exposure to 16 PAHs via vegetable consumption was 3.144 ng-TEQ/kg/day. Green vegetable was the major source of PAHs among the studied vegetables, sharing 30.3% of total exposure via vegetable consumption. Nearly 10.03% of local residents had the carcinogenic risk between 1 × 10−6 and 1 × 10−5, and 89.97% of local people had the carcinogenic risk between 1 × 10−5 and 1 × 10−4. The exposure to PAHs in vegetables in our studied area posed a slight carcinogenic risk to the local residents. DahA, BaA, BaP and IcdP were the major contributors, sharing 62.2%, 12.6%, 10.6% and 6.4%, respectively.
