Human Health
PAHs toxicity is very structurally dependent, with isomers (PAHs with the same formula and number of rings) varying from being nontoxic to being extremely toxic. Thus, highly carcinogenic PAHs may be small or large. One PAH compound, benzopyrene, is notable for being the first chemical carcinogen to be discovered (and is one of many carcinogens found in cigarette smoke). The EPA has classified seven PAH compounds as probable human carcinogens: benzanthracene, benzopyrene, benzofluoranthene, benzofluoranthene, chrysene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene, and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene.
PAHs known for their carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic properties are benzanthracene and chrysene, benzofluoranthene, benzofluoranthene, benzofluoranthene, benzopyrene, benzoperylene, coronene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene (C20H14), indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene (C22H12) and ovalene.
High prenatal exposure to PAH is associated with lower IQ and childhood asthma. The Center for Children's Environmental Health reports studies that demonstrate that exposure to PAH pollution during pregnancy is related to adverse birth outcomes including low birth weight, premature delivery, and heart malformations. Cord blood of exposed babies shows DNA damage that has been linked to cancer. Follow-up studies show a higher level of developmental delays at age three, lower scores on IQ tests and increased behaviorial problems at ages six and eight.
In addition, a 2012 Columbia University study in Environmental Health Perspectives linked prenatal exposure to pollutants and eventual child behavioral outcomes. The study found that exposure to higher levels of PAH was associated with a 24% higher score of anxiety/depression for children ages 6 to 7 than those with low exposure levels. Infants found to have elevated PAH levels in their umbilical cord blood were 46% more likely to eventually score highly on the anxiety/depression scale than those with low PAH levels in cord blood.
Read more about this topic: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
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“He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“Even though I had let them choose their own socks since babyhood, I was only beginning to learn to trust their adult judgment.. . . I had a sensation very much like the moment in an airplane when you realize that even if you stop holding the plane up by gripping the arms of your seat until your knuckles show white, the plane will stay up by itself. . . . To detach myself from my children . . . I had to achieve a condition which might be called loving objectivity.”
—Anonymous Parent of Adult Children. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 5 (1978)