Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access published online on May 31, 2008
Annals of Occupational Hygiene, doi:10.1093/annhyg/men027
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupational PAH Exposures during Prescribed Pile Burns
1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
2 Community, Environment and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 North Martin Avenue, PO Box 245163, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
3 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1-520-626-4918; fax: +1-520-626-8009; e-mail: jburgess{at}u.arizona.edu
Wildland firefighters are exposed to particulate matter and gases containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), many of which are known carcinogens. Our objective was to evaluate the extent of firefighter exposure to particulate and PAHs during prescribed pile burns of mainly ponderosa pine slash and determine whether these exposures were correlated with changes in urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-HP), a PAH metabolite. Personal and area sampling for particulate and PAH exposures were conducted on the White Mountain Apache Tribe reservation, working with 21 Bureau of Indian Affairs/Fort Apache Agency wildland firefighters during the fall of 2006. Urine samples were collected pre- and post-exposure and pulmonary function was measured. Personal PAH exposures were detectable for only 3 of 16 PAHs analyzed: naphthalene, phenanthrene, and fluorene, all of which were identified only in vapor-phase samples. Condensed-phase PAHs were detected in PM2.5 area samples (20 of 21 PAHs analyzed were detected, all but naphthalene) at concentrations below 1 µg m–3. The total PAH/PM2.5 mass fractions were roughly a factor of two higher during smoldering (1.06 ± 0.15) than ignition (0.55 ± 0.04 µg mg–1). There were no significant changes in urinary 1-HP or pulmonary function following exposure to pile burning. In summary, PAH exposures were low in pile burns, and urinary testing for a PAH metabolite failed to show a significant difference between baseline and post-exposure measurements.
particulate matter • polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons • prescribed burn • respirable dust • wildland firefighter • wood smoke
Received August 31, 2007; in final form May 1, 2008