Ecological Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments of Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake
太湖梅梁湾沉积物中多环芳烃的生态和健康风险

Safety of water resources threatened by persistent organic pollutants is of great concern in all countries. A case study was carried out in Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake. The quotient method served as screen level estimation of risk and it appeared that seven kinds of PAHs could pose potential adverse effects. Probabilistic method involved comparing distributions of exposure concentrations and species sensitivity to PAHs. Results showed that phenanthrene posed a negligible risk when 95% species were not affected at 95% confidential level. Fluoranthene and pyrene posed higher risk where the probability of the quotients exceeded unit would be near 20%. The cancer risk of seven kinds of PAHs presented by US EPA with genotoxicity was below 10-5 in Meiliang Bay.