Chemical composition of particulate organic matter at industrial, university and forest areas located in Bouira province, Algeria

The net concentrations of n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and highly-polar organic compounds (HPOCs) allowed to estimate the health risk associated with particulate organic matter (POM) in studied areas. Besides, anthropogenic and biogenic emission could be discriminated thanks to calculated n-alkane carbon preference indexes and to natural wax percentages, while diagnostic ratios between concentrations of individual PAHs were applied to identify the main anthropogenic sources. According to them, PM10 came out overall from road traffic and industrial manufacture. During the period of investigation, the concentration of BaP remained below the guideline value (1 ng/m3 as annual average) valid for European Union, ranging from 0.02 to 0.27 ng/m3 at all sites. In contrast, total carcinogenic power resulted relatively high in Bouira, overall with regard to employees and students. Finally, illicit substances such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol THC (up to 0.19 ng/m3) were detected for the first time in Algeria.