United States
                   Environmental Protection
                   Agency
                                   National Risk Management
                                   Research Laboratory
                                   Cincinnati, OH 45268
                   Research and Development
                                  EPA/600/SR-96/060  May 1996
                   Project  Summary
v>EPA
Analysis  of  Soil  and  House
Dust  for  Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons
                   Jane Chuang
                     It has been conjectured that jet tur-
                   bine exhaust near airplane flight paths
                   may result in significant human expo-
                   sure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-
                   bons (PAH).  EPA arranged access to a
                   household located approximately eight
                   miles from the end of a runway at the
                   Greater Cincinnati and Northern Ken-
                   tucky Airport, and collected soil, wipe,
                   and dust  samples in  and around the
                   household. House dust samples were
                   collected  inside the  household  and
                   entryway dust and soil samples were
                   collected outside. The objective of this
                   study was to determine if abnormally
                   high PAH concentrations existed in and
                   around  the selected  household.  The
                   general concentration trend for the 19
                   PAH  measured is  house dust  >
                   entryway  dust > soil. The concentra-
                   tions of each target PAH in the wipe
                   samples ranged from 0.007 to 0.54 |ag/
                   m2. The sums of 19 PAH ranged from
                   0.13 to 0.88 ppm in soil samples, from
                   1.4 to 3.1  |jg/m2 in wipe samples,  and
                   from 0.97  to 4.0 ppm in dust samples.
                   Seven of the target PAH are ranked as
                   probable  human carcinogens  (B2) in
                   the U.S. EPA's Integrated  Risk Infor-
                   mation System. The concentrations of
                   B2 PAH account for roughly half of the
                   concentrations of the sums of 19 PAH
                   in most soil and dust samples but not
                   in wipe samples.
                     This Project Summary was developed
                   by the National Risk Management Re-
                   search Laboratory's Sustainable Tech-
                   nology Division, Cincinnati, OH, to an-
                   nounce key findings  of the research
                   project that is fully documented  in a
                   separate report of the same title  (see
                                    Project Report ordering information at
                                    back).

                                    Introduction
                                     Little is known about possible exposure
                                    of individuals living near airports to poly-
                                    cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Very
                                    little data are available through traditional
                                    literature searches on the aerosol/smoke
                                    components of jet turbine exhaust. At ma-
                                    jor airports aircraft are routed through cor-
                                    ridors or discrete  pathways significantly
                                    localizeing the distribution of any fallout
                                    subject to meteorologic effects. The plume
                                    could move directly to  the  ground as  a
                                    cohesive unit due to electrostatic charge
                                    or saturation effects and pass through
                                    open windows or be  deposited on soil
                                    with  subsequent  track-in to residences,
                                    posing  a risk of  PAH exposure beyond
                                    that which might arise from contact with
                                    soil outdoors.
                                     One household is located approximately
                                    eight miles from the end of runway 27 Left
                                    at the  Greater Cincinnati and  Northern
                                    Kentucky International Airport was selected
                                    for preliminary evaluation. The  objective
                                    of this  study was to determine if abnor-
                                    mally high PAH concentrations existed in
                                    and around  the selected household. The
                                    homeowner volunteered to allow sampling
                                    in and around his home for measuring
                                    PAH in soil,  dust, and wipe  samples. Ac-
                                    cording to the homeowner, since the ex-
                                    tended runway opened  in the summer of
                                    1995, 72 to 80 turbine-equipped aircraft
                                    fly over the residence each day.  Approxi-
                                    mately 25 to 40 fly over between sunset
                                    and  sunrise depending on the  season.
                                    The  airport  began using this path as  a
                                    corridor in February 1991. There was  a

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slight hiatus from February through July
of 1995 as the runway was extended 2200
feet toward the west.
  The EPA Risk  Reduction Engineering
Laboratory (RREL)* arranged  access to
the subject property and residence. In this
study, the  RREL  developed a sampling
design to  collect  soil,  dust  and wipe
samples at different locations. Battelle pre-
pared and furnished sampling  media and
procedures for sample  collection.  RREL
conducted the sampling and provided the
collected  samples to Battelle for analysis
for PAH.  The final report summarizes the
analytical  procedures and the PAH re-
sults.

Procedure
  The sampling design was established
by RREL. Prior to the sampling, Battelle
provided  RREL the sampling media and
reviewed  the sampling procedures. A train-
ing session was held at Battelle to dem-
onstrate the use of the High Volume Small
Surface  Sampler (HVS3) for designated
areas in the carpet.
  The sampling was  conducted  on Sep-
tember 27, 1995 by RREL staff members.
A total of 10 soil samples, 5 wipe samples
and 4 dust samples was  collected. At each
sampling  site, soil was  scraped from the
top  2 cm surface with  an area  approxi-
mately 20 cm by 20 cm.  When  there were
leaves or vegetation  litter, these materi-
als,  generally about 0.5 cm deep, were
carefully  scraped away  before  taking the
soil  sample.  Indoor  and outdoor wipe
samples were taken by  quartz  fiber filters
thoroughly wet with  hexane  or  by  dry
quartz fiber filters.  The unused hexane
and  filters were sent  back to Battelle for
use  in  preparation  of a wipe blank.
Samples  were  taken from the  top  of the
west barn roof, a wood floor  area (30.5
cm  by 61  cm) in the  dining  room and
along the door jam and  the door edge in
an upstairs bedroom.
  The  HVS3  was  used to  collected
samples  of carpet-embedded house dust
from designated  areas. The HVS3 con-
sists of a high-powered vacuum cleaner
equipped with a sampling  nozzle that can
be adjusted to a specific static pressure
within the nozzle, a cyclone which accord-
ing  to theoretical  calculations  will sepa-
rate  particles 5 urn mean diameter and
larger, and a bottle to catch the sample.
Neither the  degree  to  which  the  HVS3
sampler removes the total dust  load in the
carpet nor the  distribution of PAHs as a
* The Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory (RREL)
  is now the National Risk Management Research
  Laboratory (NRMRL).
function of particle size were quantified in
this study. It is known that deep dust can
be exceedingly difficult to remove by vacu-
uming.
  Prior to the sampling, the HVS3 was
disassembled and cleaned. The HVS3 was
operated according to  the manufacture's
instruction and an ASTM standard guide.
A 76 cm by 100 cm rectangle was marked
out with masking tape at the designated
area and the width was subdivided into 10
7.6-cm wide  segments. The HVS3 was
run slowly forward  and backward across
the 100 cm length of the rectangle a total
of eight times along each 7.6-cm width.
After the eighth pass, the unit was gradu-
ally moved over to the  next segment, and
the procedure was repeated until all 10
segments  had been sampled, for a total
area of 0.76 m2.
  A sample was collected from an  out-
door entryway door mat. The sample was
collected by turning over the entryway mat
and placing it on a clean sheet of alumi-
num foil. The back of  the mat was then
beaten for several minutes before it was
removed from the foil. The loose particles
on the foil were poured into a clean bottle.
The collected soil/wipe/dust samples were
stored at <4  °C  in the dark and trans-
ported to Battelle for analysis.

Analytical Procedures
  The dust samples were separated into
fine (< 150 |im) and course fractions and
only the fine fractions were subject to ex-
traction. An aliquot of each dust and soil
sample was spiked with known amounts
of perdeuterated  PAH, and each sample
was extracted twice with 10 mL of hexane
in a sonication bath for 30 min. The hex-
ane extracts were combined, filtered, and
concentrated for subsequent gas chroma-
tography/mass spectrometry  (GC/MS)
analysis. A method blank for  dust and soil
samples was prepared  by the  same
method described above.
  Known amounts of  perdeuterate  PAH
were  spiked into each wipe sample and
extracted with dichloromethane (DCM) by
Soxhlet technique. The  DCM extracts were
concentrated to 1  mL  and were fraction-
ated using  prepacked  1 g silica gel col-
umns. Two elution  solvents,  hexane and
hexane/DCM  (1:1) were applied  to the
columns. The target  hexane/DCM  frac-
tions were concentrated to 1 mL for sub-
sequent GC/MS analysis. A  hexane-wet
filter was used as the method blank for
wipe samples  and  was prepared by the
same method.
  The sample extracts and hexane/DCM
fractions were analyzed by GC/MS using
70-eV electron ionization (El). A Finnigan
TSQ-45 GC/MS/MS instrument, operated
in the GC/MS mode, was used. Data ac-
quisition and processing were performed
with an I NCOS 2300 data system. Follow-
ing injection, the GC column was held at
70 °C for  2  min and  temperature-pro-
grammed to 290 °C at 8 °C/min. The MS
was operated in the selected ion monitor-
ing  mode.  Masses  monitored  were the
molecular  ions (M) and their associated
characteristic fragment ions including M+1
ions and doubly charged ions.

Results and Discussion
  The sums of the concentrations of prob-
able  human carcinogens  (B2)  and total
target PAH in  soil samples ranged from
0.036 to 0.42 and from 0.13 to 0.88 ppm,
respectively. The concentrations  of the
well-known carcinogen,  benzo[a]pyrene
(BaP) in  the  soil samples ranged from
0.001  to 0.53 ppm. With few exceptions,
the sums of the concentrations of B2 PAH
are  approximately half of the total  target
PAH concentrations in these soil samples.
  The sums of the  concentration  of B2
and total target PAH in wipe samples
ranged from 0.25 to 1.1  and  from  1.4 to
3.1  |o,g/m2,  respectively. The concentra-
tions of BaP in the wipe samples ranged
from 0.019 to 0.095 |.ig/m2.  In general,
higher PAH concentrations were found in
indoor wipe samples as opposed  to the
outdoor  composite wipe samples. The
sums  of the concentrations of B2 PAH
account  for approximately 20 to 35 per-
cent  of the total target PAH concentra-
tions.
  The sums of the concentrations  of B2
and total target PAH in the dust samples
ranged from 0.25 to  1.8 and from 0.97 to
4.0 ppm, respectively. The concentrations
of BaP in dust samples ranged from 0.035
to  0.19 ppm.  In  general,  levels of PAH
found in house dust samples were  higher
than those in entryway dust. The sums of
the  concentrations of B2  PAH are  ap-
proximately half  of the  total  target PAH
concentrations in house  dust samples but
not in the entryway dust sample.

Conclusions and
Recommendations
  Additional samples should be collected
to investigate the effect of aircraft exhaust
emissions  on exposure to PAH through
deposition  and  through accumulation of
PAH  in  soil and subsequent track-in to
residences. The sample locations should
consider the following factors: proximity to
airports,  flight  patterns,  prevailing  wind,
other  relevant meteorological parameters
such as temperature, indoor PAH sources,
the influence of particle  size on the PAH
distribution, assessment  of the  extent to
which the HVS3 sampling protocol  recov-

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ers particle laden PAHs representative of
the actual dust laden PAH distribution in
the carpet, and the distribution and con-
centration of PAHs remaining  in the car-
pet after sampling with the HVS3  proto-
col. The collected samples will  be ana-
lyzed  for  target PAH.  If justified by the
results from this sampling campaign,  a
thorough  pilot field study may be  desir-
able to determine the temporal and spa-
cial effects on PAH  concentrations in soil
and dust and the effect of jet engine ex-
haust on PAH exposure.
  For a pilot study,  one of the criteria for
selection of households is to have similar
indoor sources for these households so
that the effect of proximity to airports can
be better estimated. Any pilot field study
should probably be carried out during four
sampling campaigns: spring, summer, fall
and winter. This approach will enable us
to better understand the seasonal varia-
tion of climatic conditions.
  The full report was submitted in fulfill-
ment  of Contract No. 68-D4-0023, Work
Assignment No. 1,  under the sponsorship
of the  U.S.  Environmental Protection
Agency.

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   Jane C. Chuang, is with Battelle, Columbus, OH 43201-2693
   James Heidman is the EPA Work Assignment Manager (see below).
   The complete report, entitled "Analysis of Soil and House Dust for Polycyclic
     Aromatic Hydrocarbons," (Order No. PB96-177712/AS; Cost: $19.50, subject to
     change) will be available only from:
           National Technical Information Service
           5285 Port Royal Road
           Springfield, VA 22161
           Telephone: 703-487-4650
   The EPA Work Assignment Manager can be contacted at:
           Sustainable Technology Division
           National Risk Management Research Laboratory
           U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
           Cincinnati, OH 45268
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
National Risk Management Research Laboratory (G-72)
Cincinnati, OH 45268

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