Native and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air particulate matter from the city of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq

• The first reported air concentrations of PAHs and oxygenated PAHs in PM10 from Iraq.
• Mean benzo[a]pyrene concentration exceeded the EU target value.
• The dibenzopyrene and benzo[a]pyrene concentrations were highly correlated.

The concentrations of 43 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 4 oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) are reported for the first time in particulate matter (PM10) sampled in the air of the city of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq. The total PAH concentration at the different sampling sites varied between 9.3 and 114 ng/m3. The corresponding values of the human carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene were between 0.3 and 6.9 ng/m3, with most samples exceeding the EU annual target value of 1 ng/m3. The highly carcinogenic dibenzopyrene isomers dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, dibenzo[a,e]pyrene, dibenzo[a,i]pyrene and dibenzo[a,h]pyrene constituted 0.1–0.4% of the total PAH concentration. However, when scaling for relative cancer potencies using toxic equivalency factors, a benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentration of dibenzo[a,l]pyrene equal to that of benzo[a]pyrene was obtained, indicating that the contribution of dibenzo[a,l]pyrene to the carcinogenicity of the PAHs could be similar to that of benzo[a]pyrene. A high correlation between the determined concentrations of the dibenzopyrene isomers and benzo[a]pyrene was found, which supported the use of benzo[a]pyrene as an indicator for the carcinogenicity of PAHs in ambient air.The total concentrations of the four OPAHs, 9,10-anthraquinone, 4H-cyclopenta[def]phenanthren-4-one, benzanthrone, and 7,12-benz[a]anthraquinone, varied between 0.6 and 8.1 ng/m3, with 9,10-anthraquinone being the most abundant OPAH in all of the samples.