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. 2021 Mar 8;18(5):2743.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052743.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Indoor Dust Collected during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Saudi Arabia: Status, Sources and Human Health Risks

Sultan Hassan Alamri  1 , Nadeem Ali  2 , Hussain Mohammed Salem Ali Albar  3 , Muhammad Imtiaz Rashid  2 , Nisreen Rajeh  4 , Majdy Mohammed Ali Qutub  1 , Govindan Malarvannan  5
Affiliations

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Indoor Dust Collected during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Saudi Arabia: Status, Sources and Human Health Risks

Sultan Hassan Alamri et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

To control the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Saudi Arabia's government imposed a strict lockdown during March-July 2020. As a result, the public was confined to indoors, and most of their daily activities were happening in their indoor places, which might have resulted in lower indoor environment quality. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed in household dust (n = 40) collected from different residential districts of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the lockdown period. PAHs' levels were two folds higher than the previously reported PAHs in indoor dust from this region. We detected low molecular weight (LMW) with two to four aromatic ring PAHs in all the samples with a significant contribution from Phenanthrene (Phe), present at an average concentration of 1590 ng/g of dust. Although high molecular weight (HMW) (5-6 aromatic ring) PAHs were detected at lower concentrations than LMW PAHs, however, they contributed >90% in the carcinogenic index of PAHs. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of specific PAHs was above the reference dose (RfD) for young children in high-end exposure and the calculated Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) was >1.00 × 10-4 for both Saudi adults and young children. The study highlighted that indoor pollution has increased significantly during lockdown due to the increased indoor activities and inversely affect human health. This study also warrants to conduct more studies involving different chemicals to understand the indoor environment quality during strict lockdown conditions.

Keywords: COVID-19 lockdown; PAHs; Saudi Arabia; indoor dust.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Profile of studied PAHs (A), and calculated BaPeq as TEQ (B) in indoor dust samples.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Profile of studied PAHs (A), and calculated BaPeq as TEQ (B) in indoor dust samples.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of mean concentrations (ng/g) of PAHs in indoor household dust with earlier studies from the region and other countries.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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