SHORT COMMUNICATION
PAH Concentrations Inside a Wood Processing
Plant and the Indoor Effects of Outdoor
Industrial Emissions
Patrycja Rogula-Kopiec1, Wioletta Rogula-Kozłowska1, Barbara Kozielska2, Izabela Sówka3
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1Institute of Environmental Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences,
M. Skłodowska-Curie 34, 41-819 Zabrze, Poland
2Department of Air Protection, Silesian University of Technology,
Konarskiego 22B, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
3Environmental Protection Engineering Institute, Wroclaw University of Technology,
Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Submission date: 2015-01-27
Final revision date: 2015-02-04
Acceptance date: 2015-02-18
Publication date: 2015-07-27
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(4):1867-1873
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ABSTRACT
Our study was aimed at assessing the effects of indoor and outdoor emission sources on indoor and outdoor
concentrations of ambient particulate matter (PM) and PM-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) in a small sawmill in Silesia, Poland. The concentrations of total suspended particles (TSP), of their
respirable fraction (PM4), and of 16 PM4- and TSP-bound PAHs were measured. The indoor PM emission
sources (i.e. the saw and other tools for wood processing) did not cause a significant hazard to the sawmill
workers. Nonetheless, the concentrations of the 16 PAH mixtures within the sawmill were high, especially
indoors. Such high indoor PM-bound PAH concentrations were due to sawdust-adsorbing PAHs coming from
industrial PAH sources beyond the sawmill (a cokery).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.